A > 



i 



IA 



* * 









: 



s> 



1$ 

I * 



%iv$$ of dBteat Vbxtittg 



















V- 



.r r - ' 






^ * 












. 



IN THE DAYS OF MILTON 



LIVES of GREAT WRITERS 

By TUDOR JENKS 
Each l2mo y cloth. Illustrated. Price $1.00 net. 

. . With Portraits, Bibliographies and Comments . . 

IN THE DAYS OF CHAUCER 

The Story of His Life and Times 

With an Introduction by Hamilton Wright Mabik 

"An initial volume in a new series of books projected 

along vital lines and to be written in a vital spirit. Fresh, 

informal, taking. Not only the story of Chaucer's life, 

but a picture of the England of his time." — The Outlook. 

"A forceful account of what the man was, what he 
means to literature, and how he came to be." 

— The Independent. 

IN THE DAYS OF SHAKESPEARE 

"Commendable for its accuracy." — Boston Transcript. 
4 'Should be in every school library." 

— Springfield Republican. 
l ' A vivid pen picture based on the best knowledge 
available to-day." — Chicago Tribune. 

IN THE DAYS OF MILTON 

The contrast of Puritan and Cavalier life is vividly pic- 
tured at the outset of Mr. Jenks's charming life-story of 
Milton and Milton's England. The sketches of varying 
life, manners and customs and the spirit of the times 
show at once the fresh, broad and helpful spirit in 
which Milton's life and times are placed before us. The 
welcome given to Mr. Jenks's preceding books shows how 
wide the demand has been without, as well as within, 
educational circles for books which give the personal 
quality, environment and spirit of the great writers studied 
in the classrooms, — books which rest upon human interest 
rather than upon criticism and scholasticism alone. 

A. S. BARNES & CO., Publishers 

I 56 Fifth Avenue, New York 




^c MUh^ 



IN THE DAYS OF 

Milton 

By 
TUDOR JENKS 

AUTHOR OF "IN THE DAYS OF CHAUCER " AND 
"IN THE DAYS OF SHAKESPEARE" 



ILLUSTRATED 




New York 
A. S. BARNES & COMPANY 



MDCCCCV 



.iB&ARY of 50N6RESS 
fwc Oopiss rtecoiveo 

AUG 23 1905 

au*sf a ' &*& not l 

/^ 3 X// 
copy u. ' 






Copyright, 1905, by 
A. S. BARNES & COMPANY 



Published August, 1905 



PREFACE 

The England of John Milton is the 
England from which America drew its life. 
The Puritans, the Cavaliers, the Independ- 
ents were the men who came across the At- 
lantic to begin life in our new land, and 
with them they brought the principles, the 
sentiments, the traditions, and the preju- 
dices that entered into the forming of the 
nation they founded. 

To know our own history we must know 
the England that made these men what they 
were, the England of the days of the poet 
Milton. 

The genial humanity of Chaucer and 
Shakespeare warms admiration to affection, 
but the virtues of Milton by their extreme 
rectitude tend to repel sympathy. Amid the 
fierce controversies of his times, there was 
v 



Preface 

little to cultivate the softer qualities, but the 
story of Milton's life shows him an affec- 
tionate friend and one capable of love. 

His life was such that he might have be- 
come embittered. His dearest friend was 
soon lost; his marriages were certainly dis- 
appointing; his family were never in accord 
with his opinions, and he won during his 
lifetime little worldly success. Yet his 
poems tell of a serene and contented mind, 
and those who know him best find him free 
from every pettiness of his time — a disciple 
and apostle of liberty. 

Although he was apparently unheard by 
those around him, his words are still win- 
ning victories for mankind wherever there 
is tyranny to be overthrown, bigotry to be 
rebuked, or truth yet striving for a hearing. 

In this book his life is traced upon the 
background of events then filling the minds 
of Englishmen. The greater happenings 
are noted as briefly as they might be borne 
in mind by one who, after a long life, recalls 
the more striking facts remaining in his 
vi 



Preface 

memory. It is hoped that this story of 
Milton's personality and times will prove of 
use to general readers and will supplement 
the purely critical study of Milton's works. 
A brief bibliography and a chronological 
table are added to direct the reader to fuller 
information. 

Tudor Jenks. 



vii 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 







Page 


I. 


The Puritan and the Cavalier . 


I 


II. 


The England of Milton's Youth . 


. 16 


Ill 


Milton's Family and His Boyhood . 


• 3i 


IV. 


The School Days in London . 


• 45 


V. 


Milton at Cambridge University 


. 60 


VI. 


Milton's Residence at Horton 


. 82 


VII. 


The Visit to the Continent . 


. 98 


VIII. 


End of His Foreign Journey 


. 117 


IX. 


The Writer of Political and Relig 


ious 




Pamphlets 


■ • J 35 


X. 


In the Early Tears of the War 


. . 152 


XI. 


Milton's Days of Teaching . 


. . 171 


XII. 


To the End of the Civil War . 


. . 189 


XIII. 


Last Days of Royalty 


. . 210 


XIV. 


Milton as the Commonwealth's 
fender 


De- 

. . 227 



IX 



Table of Contents 

Page 
XV, From Cromwell's Dominion to the Res- 
toration 241 

XVI. The Restoration and Milton's Last 

Years 260 

Appendix 

Chief Dates Relating to Milton's Life and 

works 285 

A Brief Bibliography 293 

Index 297 



CHAPTER I 

THE PURITAN AND THE CAVALIER 

WHEN our American forefathers 
began a new nation the ideas 
they carried with them across 
the Atlantic were those of Milton's Eng- 
land; and we shall gain the clearest under- 
standing of their hopes and purposes by 
learning what the Englishmen of the early 
seventeenth century were in their own 
home. 

There were in the realms of the Stuart 
kings, James I and Charles I, two great 
parties with widely differing views upon 
questions of politics, religion, and social 
life. In later days than those of Milton's 
youth these parties became known as Roy- 
alists and Puritans, King's men and Parlia- 
ment men, Cavaliers and Roundheads, Ma- 
I 



In the Days of Milton 

lignants and Rebels, and so on; but "Cava- 
liers" and "Puritans" seem to be the best 
terms by which to distinguish them for our 
own purposes. 

There was for many years no sharp line 
of division, but as the conflict between king 
and people became more acute, men were 
forced to range themselves with one side or 
the other, until all England was divided be- 
tween the two great parties. 

With the Puritan party were all who be- 
lieved in independence in church govern- 
ment ; who wished to limit strictly the power 
of the throne; who thought men's daily 
lives should be guided by the rules laid 
down in the Scriptures. With the Cava- 
liers were found the upholders of a state- 
governed church, those who favored aristo- 
cratic government, who were less strict in 
their way of living, or at least more tolerant 
of their neighbor's faults. 

We may roughly divide men into similar 
classes to-day; but in Milton's time came a 
parting of the ways, and a struggle to see 
2 



Puritan and Cavalier 

which principles should control England. 
The Puritans and the Cavaliers had little 
sympathy for one another, and differed in 
opinions no more widely than in their lives. 

While there were households in which 
wealth and refinement were accompanied by 
the strictest morality in conduct and the 
most extreme Puritanism in religious views, 
there were also Cavaliers no less moral and 
abstemious, no less conscientious, and quite 
as poor as any Puritans; but in general 
terms we may picture the differing lives of 
the two parties. 

The Puritan life of the time was in wide 
contrast to that of the Cavaliers. The be- 
ginnings of Puritanism were among the 
humbler classes, whose freedom from the 
vices of the rich was somewhat due to the 
absence of the same temptations. The 
Cavalier was fond of good food and of 
wine, and often drank to excess. He was 
used to a gay and idle social life, and this 
gave opportunity for immorality. His 
reading was of the literature meant to ap- 
3 






In the Days of Milton 

peal to tastes not over nice, and his habits 
were formed by these influences. 

The Puritan household was less lavish, 
and more conducive to temperance in eat- 
ing, drinking and dress. The extravagant 
habits of the Cavalier by very contrast led 
the Puritans to the other extreme. Instead 
of dazzling colors, they chose the sober 
hues. In place of the love-locks curling 
upon the shoulders and lace collar, the Puri- 
tans wore modest linen collars or small 
ruffs, and clipped their hair more nearly to 
the length now so universal among men. 
Jewelry was avoided, their speech was 
formed upon Scriptural models, and their 
whole carriage was in accordance with their 
ideas of seemly simplicity. 

The literature popular among the fash- 
ionable classes was despised by the Puritans 
not only as demoralizing but as a frivolous 
waste of time. Their reading was more 
given to theological discourses and treatises, 
and their talk was much upon the same end- 
less subjects. 

4 



Puritan and Cavalier 

The dissatisfaction of Puritans with the 
church was based not alone upon their ob- 
jection to its ceremonies and symbols, in 
which they saw relics of popery or danger 
of a return to that form of government, 
but upon the character of the English 
clergy, many of whom led what seemed to 
these sober-minded citizens ungodly and 
worldly lives. 

Thus in many ways the influence of the 
Puritans was for good and toward greatly 
needed reforms. They frowned upon hard 
drinking, and were abstemious in their 
habits. They were respecters of woman- 
hood, and discountenanced every form of 
immoral life. They saw in the festivals of 
the country folk opportunities for wrong- 
doing, and urged that Sunday should be a 
day set apart for something better than 
roistering and rough play. In all these 
matters their views seem to us warranted by 
the state of affairs in the England of the 
time. 

But at first the Puritan movement was 
5 



In the Days of Milton 

merely an ill-defined desire for the reform 
of abuses. 

We shall find a fair type of the Cavalier 
household at the time of King James' ac- 
cession in one of the old manor-houses such 
as were built in the later days of Elizabeth. 
The house, often in the shape of the letter 
E, perhaps in compliment to the Virgin 
Queen, is built high upon turfed terraces 
rising from such a formal garden as Bacon 
describes in his essay upon "Gardens. " 
There are clipped trees in fantastic shapes, 
trimly kept hedges, and ample flower-beds. 
The house has a central court, an impres- 
sive entrance hall, wide windows, two great 
wings, and long galleries well lighted. 

Within, the main hall was lofty, with 
vaulted and timbered roof. The hospita- 
ble fireplace was surmounted by a decorated 
chimney-piece. There were richly carved 
furniture, the walls were hung with tapes- 
try, and throughout the dwelling were signs 
of wealth and good living, for it was a time 
of prosperity. Paintings and statues, Venc- 
6 



Puritan and Cavalier 

tian glass-work, rich plate and curiously 
wrought table-furniture were among the 
household treasures. There were extensive 
stables where good horses were kept in 
readiness, and more carefully lodged than 
the laborers on the estate; and near there 
were kennels for the hounds and other dogs, 
and even mews for the hawks, that were not 
yet entirely neglected. 

The members of the wealthy Cavalier'3 
household dressed richly, in silks, velvets 
and laces, much in the fashion known to us 
by the portraits of Raleigh, Essex, Leices- 
ter and other great men of the Elizabethan 
period, though there were a few changes in 
the shapes of ruffs or collars, of doublets 
and hose. Besides the old knight who was 
the head of the establishment, and the lady 
his wife, were the children and young rela- 
tives, whose dress differed little from that 
of their elders; and the household also in- 
cluded often a threadbare or prosperous 
chaplain, who read the church services for 
the household, and was usually a complai- 

7 



In the Days of Milton 

sant dependant upon the family, inclined to 
wink at the faults of his betters and to save 
his severity for humbler ears. 

There was much gaiety at times, when in 
celebration of holidays or family events the 
great hall was ablaze with candelabra, and 
bustling with the brilliantly dressed guests, 
who came on horse-back or in coaches from 
miles around. There were hunting-parties 
or excursions for fishing, and expeditions 
to neighboring towns or to London, to at- 
tend balls or assemblies given by people of 
their own rank. 

For the country people about the manor- 
house, there were fairs, May-day gather- 
ings, religious festivals, or the riotous cele- 
bration of holidays, and Christmas merry- 
makings ; and there were also long days of 
toil during busy seasons, ending with the 
harvest home celebrations. But in general 
the surface appearances of life warranted 
the universal feeling that "Merry Eng- 
land" was a just description of the land. 
Only to one who looked more closely were 
8 



Puritan and Cavalier 

there signs that the merriment was not 
always widespread. 

In the cities the difference between the 
lives of Puritans and Cavaliers were not, of 
course, so marked. A greater soberness of 
dress and strictness of demeanor may have 
characterized the former, but in the life of 
such a man as the father of John Milton 
there was in outward matters little to dis- 
tinguish him from his more orthodox neigh- 
bors. The family life was much the same 
in all London households except those of 
the nobility or the very poor, and the Puri- 
tans were to be distinguished only by their 
attitude toward matters of churchmanship. 
In fact, when it came to the religious or 
intellectual life, the England of those days 
was one thing to the Royalist or Cavalier, 
another to the Parliamentarian or Round- 
head, and it was nearly impossible for either 
to understand or sympathize with the other. 

The Cavalier's highest reverence was for 
the king, the church, and "Merry Eng- 
land." He did not blind himself to the 

9 



In the Days of Milton 

faults of the Stuart kings, but his belief in 
monarchy was unshaken by the unworthi- 
ness of the monarch of any one period. 
The throne meant to him the glory of the 
kingdom of England, it stood for the whole 
long roll of victories that made holy his 
country's royal standard; it stood for the 
supremacy of law and order and was the 
shrine of patriotism. It was the bulwark 
and rallying point under threat of foreign 
invasion. 

In the mind of the Cavaliers the church 
also stood for the whole body of national 
religion. It was the church of his fore- 
fathers, hallowed by his earliest memories 
and entwined with every great event of his 
life — with birth, baptism, confirmation, 
holy communion, marriage, death. All 
these associations made sacred the very 
stones of the cathedrals and churches, the 
instruments of worship, and the rich adorn- 
ments piety had contributed to beautify 
"Mother Church." That there were un- 
worthy men among the prelates and on the 
10 



Puritan and Cavalier 

episcopal thrones, that there were abuses 
and errors in the establishment was to be 
regretted, as one might regret a deformity 
in a parent or child, but with no loss of rev- 
erence or love. 

The same disposition that tolerated or 
excused the faults of king or church, would 
overlook the regrettable excesses and irreg- 
ularities that existed amid the institutions 
making up the traditional life of the people 
of England. The old customs — the Mor- 
ris dances, the May-pole revelries, the liber- 
ties of fair days and market days — were, 
like all human ways, far from an ideal per- 
fection. Men are not angels, all of us 
know, and there is always some bitter min- 
gled with the sweet. But the old customs 
were hallowed by time, they were picture 
esque, they made life romantic, bright, and 
interesting. Since England was no worse 
than the rest of the world, why interfere ? 

So might the Cavalier express himself, 
with an air of kindly tolerance that is most 
engaging. 

II 



In the Days of Milton 

But the Puritan, the Roundhead, must be 
heard, and at once we listen to another 
story. 

Instead of the sacred Majesty reverenced 
by the Cavalier, we see a weak, corrupt, 
opinionated man, oppressing his subjects 
that he may waste their substance among a 
despicable rout of dissolute courtiers, revel- 
ers without principle and without heart. 
Their careless lives are maintained only by 
the wretchedness of overworked men and 
women. The holy heritage of the national 
honor is pawned for foreign gold, or to 
gain the favor of royalties as corrupt as the 
Stuarts themselves. The rights of the peo- 
ple are made to give way to the empty ca- 
prices of the king and his unworthy favor- 
ites, and the laws of morality and of the 
kingdom are made powerless to punish even 
the crimes of wicked lords and ladies. 

To the Puritan the church had drifted 

away from her ancient moorings, and the 

truth was no longer in her keeping. Forms 

and ceremonies were empty of the spirit, 

12 



Puritan and Cavalier 

and served but to gag and repress the in- 
spired men longing to deliver a message 
from on high. If any remnant of the an- 
cient faith lingered there it was a dead faith 
and lacking the works that give life and 
meaning and power. The bishops and 
clergy were the creatures of a corrupted 
aristocracy, living apart from the religious 
life of their people, of the flocks looking to 
these shepherds for their spiritual food. 
Worship of divine things had been trans- 
ferred to mere symbols, and had become 
idolatry, hateful in the sight of God and 
of religious souls. 

As for the corruptions in the national 
life, these were but the fruits of the worldly 
life, the results of man's alienation from 
heavenly things ; and as such they were be- 
come an abomination. Costly dress, ex- 
travagance in living, idleness and empty 
folly, games, dancing, cards, dice — they all 
were the "devil's snares" wherein to catch 
the soul, and to every right-minded Chris- 
tian abhorrent. 

13 



In the Days of Milton 

With each of these men. we must have 
sympathy, with neither need we fully agree. 
In all great controversies time shows some- 
thing of right on both sides, and we may 
delight both in the dashing Cavalier, gay, 
brave, tolerant, rejoicing in his loyalty to 
throne and to church, and also we may re- 
spect, admire and sympathize with the 
Puritan's manly fight for the right, with 
his honesty and his desire to put down 
shams. 

There were noble figures on both sides of 
the conflict, men that were an honor to Eng- 
land and to the cause they championed; and 
yet the complete ascendancy of either party 
brought great evils. Against the fanatic- 
ism and narrowness of the Commonwealth 
must be weighed the corruption of the Res- 
toration; and among Cavaliers and Puri- 
tans alike were found honor, loyalty, cour- 
age, moral and physical. In the ranks of 
both armies there was no lack of hypocrites, 
knaves, and traitors, none of heroes and 
martyrs. 

14 



Puritan and Cavalier 

The great pendulum of national tenden- 
cies covered during the life of Milton a 
wide arc, and since his time the same mo- 
tion has been repeated. The impulse that 
urges it upon its course is the love of liberty, 
and this love of liberty was the main motive 
of John Milton throughout his whole ca- 
reer. 

The repression of religious freedom led 
to the revolt of the English church and the 
English nation against the Pope of Rome 
and the Catholic powers during the reigns 
of Henry VIII and Elizabeth. Then came 
the attempt to restrain the freedom of spirit 
thus created, an attempt beginning under 
Elizabeth and lasting through the reign of 
the first Stuart. The second Stuart fell a 
victim to the reaction of the English peo- 
ple, and the third was restored when this 
impulse spent its force. 

But the youth of Milton belonged to the 
reign of James I, and the conditions under 
which this king came to the throne must be 
first considered. 

15 



CHAPTER II 

THE ENGLAND OF MILTON'S YOUTH 

THE reign of Queen Elizabeth saw 
England grow to a commanding 
place among the nations. Spain 
had been crippled by the loss of her great 
fleet, and had been held at bay. Englishmen 
had faith in themselves and in their country, 
and this faith made them loyal to the Queen 
and to the throne. The great men of the 
land were men whose exploits gained them 
respect, and their extravagancies of dress 
and their affectations were excused because 
they were known to be men of strength and 
ability. Elizabeth was admired and praised 
even after she had lost her charm of man- 
ner; and she was too wise to oppose the 
popular will in minor matters. She was 
Queen of all the English. 
16 



England of Milton's Youth 

When James VI of Scotland succeeded 
her, he had only to copy her wise example 
to retain the personal respect she had 
gained for the occupant of the throne. But 
James came of a different stock. The son 
of Lord Darnley and of Mary Queen of 
Scots was not likely to resemble in character 
the daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry 
VIII. His ideas were Scotch, his educa- 
tion French and classical. He was lacking 
in English common sense. 

Personally, he is said to have been good- 
natured and sensible — the "wisest fool in 
Christendom," as he was called. From 
the first he made himself disliked for tri- 
fling reasons; thus in Shakespeare's play, 
"Measure for Measure," there are two pas- 
sages supposed to refer to James' dislike of 
being crowded by the subjects who thronged 
about him as he came from Edinburgh to 
London in 1603. If Elizabeth was proud 
and impatient, she was careful to discour- 
age no expression of loyalty. James was 
afraid of the people, fearful of assassina- 
17 



In the Days of Milton 

tion. He was not cordial to his new Eng- 
lish subjects, and he was likewise repellent 
toward the Scottish nobles who hoped for a 
reward of past loyalty. Elizabeth regard- 
ed herself as the leader of her people, and 
made their interests hers; James felt that 
England was his rightful estate, bound to 
administer to his glory, and especially to fill 
the royal purse. After the poverty of the 
Scotch throne, he looked upon the compara- 
tive wealth of the English treasury as inex- 
haustible. 

He became extravagant, and was driven 
to every shift to raise money for himself 
and for his hangers-on ; and his attempts to 
increase the royal revenues brought him 
into conflict with his parliaments and his 
people. 

Yet the general state of the kingdom was 
such that, rightly managed, there might 
have been revenue enough even for an ex- 
travagant court, if only the good will of the 
people had been gained, and their preju- 
dices respected. The land was prosperous, 
18 



England of Milton s Youth 

and the people were finding many new pur- 
suits that brought wealth into their hands. 
The farmers were regaining their rightful 
importance, and land that had been made 
into sheep-runs was once more ploughed 
and sown. Many new trades had been 
brought into England by Protestants driven 
by persecution out of Europe. The ex- 
ploits of English sailors had increased com- 
merce with foreign lands, and had brought 
wealth into the country not only from law- 
ful trading but from the piratic seizure of 
Spanish and French merchantmen — a spe- 
cies of private warfare then winked at by 
the government. 

The distribution of this wealth was not 
quite even. The wages of laborers had 
not risen as fast as prices; that is, money 
wages were nearly the same, and would buy 
not quite so much. Rents had risen, and 
the owners of land — the nobles and the 
gentry, or land-owning families — had 
larger incomes; this had come about be- 
cause the land was worth more to the f arm- 

19 



In the Days of Milton 

ers, since it would produce more crops that 
were salable. For it must be remembered 
that the use of vegetables as food had been 
greatly increased during the reign of Eliza- 
beth. At the same time wool had not kept 
up its high price, and there was not the 
same temptation to dismiss agricultural la- 
borers and keep great flocks of sheep need- 
ing only the care of one or two shepherds 
and their dogs. 

This fall in the price of wool was due to 
a curious cause. In Elizabeth's reign there 
had been so many good fields turned to pas- 
tures that the sheep waxed fat, heavy and 
lazy. They made better mutton, but 
coarser wool. The English wool had been 
the best in the world, but it was now no bet- 
ter than others, and the demand lessened. 

The sheep lands going back to the farm- 
ers, caused them to hire more laborers, and 
there were work and wages for the country 
folk. Another cause for the increasing 
prosperity was the more skillful farming, 
and growing knowledge of the value of fer- 
20 



England of Milton s Youth 

tilizing the land. There were books print- 
ed to tell how crops should be treated and 
farm animals managed. These works were 
well written, and so valued that it was rec- 
ommended they should be taught in the 
schools; such a book is Tusser's "Five Hun- 
dred Points of Husbandry," published two 
years before Shakespeare's birth, in 1562, 
and republished in 1604, not long before 
Milton's birth. It was in rhyme, and con- 
tains lines that were or have become prov- 
erbs, such as "Better late than never," and 
"Who goeth a-borrowing, goeth a-sor row- 
ing." Farming was becoming a science, 
and the value of land rose with the in- 
creased returns that farmers could reckon 
upon. 

As a result of greater prosperity, people 
throughout the country lived better in every 
respect. Where their fathers had slept in 
straw, the cotters now had bedsteads, and 
yet these laborers had less than their share 
of the growing wealth. The classes that 
profited in greater proportion began, after 
21 



In the Days of Milton 

the manner of mankind, "to ape their bet- 
ters." 

The gentry imitated the fashions of the 
nobility and the rich merchants. Their 
clothing was richer and more fanciful. 
Their tables were lavish, and their houses 
well furnished. In place of wooden 
trenchers, pewter plates were becoming 
common among the well-to-do, and silver 
services were not now confined to the house- 
holds of the few great nobles. There were 
woven tapestries upon the walls, replacing 
the "painted cloths'' that had been common 
from the days of Chaucer to those of Shake- 
cpeare. 

More fuel could be afforded, and so 
there were more fires, and as a consequence 
a great building of chimneys. 

With more money and greater leisure, 
there came a disposition to gather in the 
cities for the sake of society. Writers of 
the time mention the shutting up of country 
houses while families sought the gaieties of 
city life. 

22 



England of Milton s Youth 

Abundance of money also had two other 
effects. It gave a strong impulse to the 
schemes for colonizing foreign lands, since 
these were believed to offer chances for 
great profit, through gold discoveries, fish- 
eries, and the importation of woods or 
drugs. Banking, in the same way, was 
stimulated because there were many who 
had money to invest. And this period sees 
in England the true beginnings of money- 
lending. 

America and the Indies were the chief 
fields for planting colonies and trading- 
posts. The Virginia Company and the 
East India Company are examples of the 
enterprise of English merchants and adven- 
turers. The fisheries sent English sailors 
to Newfoundland or to Iceland, while the 
slave trade took their vessels to Africa and 
to the American plantations of the Spanish. 

As all these opportunities for trade and 
commerce were improved the English gov- 
ernment tried to regulate them by law. 
The importing or exporting of goods was 
23 



In the Days of Milton 

forbidden as seemed good to the ruling 
powers. The exclusive right to make or 
sell certain articles was granted to individ- 
uals who would undertake to transact their 
business for the interests of the state. 

But these monopolies proved to be a 
tempting source of revenue to the crown or 
to its favored courtiers. The grants were 
extended from unusual commodities to 
those of the commonest use, to absolute 
necessities; and thus the crown, which had 
at first exercised the power of monopoly on 
the basis of the public good, came to regard 
the grants as a means of raising revenue — 
in short, as a means of forced taxation. 

Toward the end of Elizabeth's reign, the 
people through the Parliament had com- 
plained of these monopolies as a grievous 
wrong, and she had promised to examine 
into the subject. Two years before the ac- 
cession of James the Parliament again com- 
plained that nothing had yet been done to 
right the wrong. The crown ministers 
tried to retain the sovereign's right to mo- 
24 



England of Milton s Youth 

nopolies, and asked Parliament to petition 
the queen to redress the illegalities. Of 
course this petition would have been an ad- 
mission that the Queen could do as she 
pleased, and the parliament were not to be 
fooled into this recognition of monopolies. 

Elizabeth, being wise, yielded, and de- 
clared that the existing monopolies should 
be repealed and no new ones granted, — a 
promise which was not entirely kept, as we 
shall see ; and many of the monopolies were 
left as a bone of contention for King James 
and his people. 

Another element tending to make the 
last years of Elizabeth's reign a time of 
prosperity was the existence of peace at 
home and of wars abroad. The energy of 
the English had gone into the improvement 
of their own country. They had in indi- 
vidual cases gone abroad and seen enough 
of fighting, as in the Netherlands where 
Sir Philip Sidney fell and where John Smith 
and Miles Standish began their military 
lives ; upon the sea they had ample practice 
25 



In the Days of Milton 

in all forms of warfare. But England was 
undisturbed and could give attention to the 
farm and to the trades. Her citizens were 
engaged in their own businesses and in the 
administration of their home government 
and affairs. 

The men who went to Parliament were 
men of substance and experience in practical 
matters. They had, as the historian Gard- 
iner says, "been used to deal with their own 
local affairs before being called on to dis- 
cuss the affairs of the country." 

Such men as Hampden and Cromwell, as 
Pym and Vane, came from families of sub- 
stance and standing in their own communi- 
ties, used to judge for themselves and to act 
with decision. The opposition to Spain 
and Roman Catholicism in Europe had 
made the loyal English favor the Protes- 
tant cause, and thus the members of Parlia- 
ment came to be strong adherents of Prot- 
estantism. 

King James during his reign in Scotland 
had been in bitter conflict with the Catho- 
26 



England of Milton s Youth 

lies and the Presbyterians, and had shown 
that he would be likely to favor the princi- 
pal opponents of these parties — the Epis- 
copacy. And yet there were reasons why 
all parties looked upon the new king as 
likely to favor each of them. The Roman 
Catholics knew that the Pope looked with 
satisfaction on his accession to the English 
throne, and expected him to be lenient in 
enforcing the severe laws Elizabeth had 
made against the Catholics who refused to 
conform to the English church, and to rec- 
ognize her right to reign. 

The Presbyterians hoped that the king 
of Presbyterian Scotland might be on better 
terms with them than with the Scotch of 
the same belief; and the Puritans hoped 
that to win favor with their strong party 
in England James might listen to their 
propositions for the reform of what they 
considered abuses. 

All were disappointed. James, at the 
celebrated conference held in Hampton 
Court Palace, rebuked the Puritans and 
27 



In the Days of Milton 

threw his influence completely on the side 
of the bishops who wished to uphold the 
usages of the English church. He even 
went so far as to threaten to "harry the 
Puritans out of the kingdom. " 

Thus the king had made enemies of an- 
other large and influential part of the Eng- 
lish people, and had declared that the prin- 
ciples for which they stood were considered 
by him as tending to undermine the royal 
rights. 

As for the Roman Catholics, James 
tried to carry out his promise to the Pope. 
The fines meant to stamp out Catholicism* 
were remitted; and then, when the Catho- 
lics ceased to attend the English church 
services, James banished the priests from 
London. 

This brought about the so-called "Gun- 
powder Plot," and the renewed persecution 
of all Catholics, whereby the King earned 
still further enmity. 

But the greatest cause of strife between 
king and people arose in connection with 
28 



England of Milton s Youth 

the attempt to raise money. If this money 
had been needed for the defense of the na- 
tion it might have been granted, even 
though the methods of raising it had been 
unpopular or unlawful. King James, how- 
ever, made no pretense of applying to any 
good purpose the money unrightfully ex- 
acted. He lavished it upon Scotch favor- 
ites, and in foolish expenditures, treating 
the kingdom as a private estate bound to 
supply him with a revenue he might dispose 
of as he chose. 

Parliaments were summoned and urged 
to meet the king's demands, and when they 
seized the opportunity to make terms bind- 
ing the king against further wrongful taxes, 
they were sent home again with a scolding, 
and the king went without his money, and 
was driven to other projects to secure 
funds. 

Among these perhaps the most unpopu- 
lar was the attempt to marry his son into 
the Spanish royal family, and the negotia- 
tions to bring this about lasted for nine 
29 



In the Days of Milton 

years, only to be abandoned as hopeless 
when the Spanish had thoroughly snubbed 
the English prince. 

Such were the main events that occupied 
the minds of the English for the few years 
before and after Milton's birth, and it will 
be seen how all were in some measure con- 
cerned in forming his character and shap- 
ing the events of his life. 

Milton was in this respect like neither 
Chaucer nor Shakespeare. Chaucer lived 
a life apart from the public events of his 
time, and seems little affected by them in 
his writings ; while Shakespeare, though he 
made use of such material as seemed to him 
adapted to interest his audiences, has left 
nothing to show that he exerted the slight- 
est influence in favor of any movement of 
his times. 

But John Milton's life cannot be told 
without continual reference to public 
events, and for long years he gave himself 
heart and soul to the advocacy of those 
public reforms in which he believed. 
30 



CHAPTER III 

milton's family and his boyhood 

^T^HE family from which the poet Mil- 
ton descended has been traced no 
further back than a certain Henry 
Milton living in Oxfordshire, a man of 
small means, probably a farmer tenant upon 
an estate he rented. Of him we know only 
that he died late in 1558, not long before 
Elizabeth came to the throne, leaving prop- 
erty to the value of £7, certainly not a large 
amount even considering that money in 
those days would buy so much more that 
this amount would mean perhaps $200 to- 
day. He was what is called a yeoman 
farmer. 

The son of this Henry Milton was the 
poet's grandfather. His name was Rich- 
ard, and he is said to have been an under- 

3i 



In the Days of Milton 

ranger, or one of the keepers, of Shotover 
Forest. Oxfordshire was then thickly 
wooded, and this forest was not far from 
the village of Holton, where these ancestors 
lived, a little place five miles eastward of 
Oxford. Richard's house was at Stanton 
St. John, a hamlet near Holton, and in the 
same neighborhood he found his wife, 
whose maiden name had been Haughton, 
but who was a widow when Richard mar- 
ried her. 

There are reasons for believing that 
Richard was richer than his father, for the 
son of Richard was better educated than 
was then usual for men in his station. This 
son, also named John Milton, was the 
poet's father, and was born in 1562 or 
1563. He may have been a student at Ox- 
ford, for he seems to have known some- 
thing of Latin. He was a contemporary of 
Shakespeare, being possibly a year older, 
and came of about the same class of people, 
and lived within thirty miles or so of Strat- 
ford-on-Avon. 

32 



Family and Boyhood 

Richard Milton and his son John differed 
in their religious opinions, we are told, and 
when the son u was found to be reading the 
Bible in his own room," he was sent from 
home to make his way in the world with- 
out his father's help. He is next heard 
of in London, giving lessons in music, 
and earning some money besides as per- 
former and composer. Then his name 
is found first as an apprentice and after- 
ward as a full member of the "Scriveners' 
Company," to which he was admitted 
when still a few years under forty, in 
1599. 

This was one of the many companies or 
unions of the London tradesmen and crafts- 
men, associations that looked after the wel- 
fare of their members, made rules about the 
apprenticeship to be served before one prac- 
tised as a master workman, and generally 
regulated the business of its members. 
These guilds were powerful and respected, 
many of them very old and prosperous, 
owning buildings for their meetings, and 
33 



In the Days of Milton 

looking after the families of members who 
died. 

The Scriveners were something like at- 
torneys. They drew up legal papers, 
wrote them out carefully in due form, saw 
to the making of contracts, and very natu- 
rally became valued advisers of men with 
money to lend or to invest. Besides this, 
they learned how to invest money of their 
own, and thus now and then became men 
of property. Such a business successfully 
carried on proves its practiser to be a man 
of some cultivation and ability. 

Besides being a prosperous scrivener, the 
elder John Milton gave enough of his time 
to his music to become a composer and mu- 
sician of some note, and had more than the 
usual education. He was fairly prosper- 
ous, and among other property in London 
owned the house where the poet was born. 

Soon after entering the Scriveners' Com- 
pany, the father had married Sarah Jeffrey, 
in the Church of All Hallows — or All 
Saints — in Bread street, London. In the 
34 



Family and Boyhood 

same street as All Saints Church was the 
shop and home of John Milton, Scrivener, 
where he had an office fitted not unlike a 
modern lawyer's office, with desks for a 
master and his apprentices, stools and 
chairs, good ink and quill pens lying about 
ready for business, for much of the copying 
or drafting of manuscripts was done in the 
office and then delivered to customers — as 
type-writing is done to-day. One of Mil- 
ton's biographers calls attention to two 
quotations wherein scriveners are men- 
tioned. One is Chaucer's little poem to his 
"Scrivener Adam," the other is in Shake- 
speare's "Taming of the Shrew," 

"'We'll pass the marriage privately and well. 
Send for your daughter by the servant here ; 
My boy shall fetch the scrivener presently." 

That is, will bring the professional writer 
to draw up the marriage contract at once, 
for "presently" means "at once" in Shake- 
speare. As to musical ability, Dr. Bur- 
ney's "History of Music" speaks of the 

35 



In the Days of Milton 

elder Milton as "a voluminous composer, 
and equal in science, if not in genius, to the 
best musicians of his age." 

The mother has not* left even so much 
renown to posterity. There was long a 
doubt as to her maiden name, but the best 
opinion now is that she was one of two 
orphan daughters of a merchant tailor of 
London named Paul Jeffrey, originally 
from Essex, her own name being Sarah. 
John married her about 1600, when she 
was about twenty-eight years old. Her 
son in his poems speaks of her as of good 
descent, and known for her charitable dis- 
position. Another fact which would be 
trivial except for her son's loss of his sight, 
is the weakness of her eyes, compelling her 
to wear spectacles while still less than thirty 
years of age. Milton's father had unusu- 
ally good eyesight, being able to read with- 
out glasses up to eighty-four. 

There were six children, of whom three 
died young, leaving Anne, John, and Chris- 
topher, who ranked in age as here named. 

36 



Family and Boyhood 

The house in Bread street was, after the 
fashion of the time, distinguished by a sign, 
since as a business office it was an advantage 
to have it known to the public, and numbers 
for houses were a later invention. Thus 
in old books you will see the printer's or 
publisher's place of business thus distin- 
guished: "Printed by Ralph Blower for 
Thomas Pavier, & are to be solde at his 
shop in Corn-hill, at the signe of the Cat 
and Parrats, over against Popeshead alley 
nere the Royal Exchange." The above is 
taken from a book published in 1590. 
Sidney's "Apologie for Poetrie" is to be 
sold at Henry Olney's shop "in Paules 
Churchyard, at the signe of the George, 
neere to Cheap-gate." 

^ John Milton's address was "at the sign 
of the Spread Eagle in Bread street," the 
eagle being adopted from the armorial 
bearings of the family. Here in a narrow 
street the future poet lived in the midst of 
London from the date of his birth, Decem- 
ber 9, 1608, until he was eleven years old. 
37 



In the Days of Milton 

Bread street opened upon Cheapside, the 
old London market place, and in Milton's 
day a busy thoroughfare. Over the very 
ground of Bread street crossed old Watling 
street, the famous Roman road and one of 
the most ancient highways of London, so 
the boy was born in the very heart of his 
native city. The streets in that neighbor- 
hood bear witness that they once were 
favored by the sellers of certain wares, for 
near Bread comes Milk street, Honey lane, 
Wood street, Friday street ( favored of fish 
dealers), Cutter street, and so on, showing 
that here near the market place were gath- 
ered the butchers, the bakers and candle- 
stick makers, dwelling in the upper stories 
and selling their goods in the open booths 
below, as was the fashion of the time. 

The streets were not yet generally paved, 
and were very poorly lighted at night by 
dim lanterns hung at corners or before the 
doors of the citizens. The houses were 
built gable-end to the road, showing the 
peaked roofs, and projected well toward 

38 



Family and Boyhood 

one another, serving as a shelter if one kept 
close to the walls in rainy weather. There 
were good inns in and near Bread street, 
and many well-built houses ornamented 
with carved figures on their great beams, 
and often made exceedingly gay with colors 
and gilding. A large model of such a 
house front is in the Metropolitan museum, 
New York. London of that day was a 
small place comparatively, and not yet be- 
yond the reach of the country air. Garnett 
in his life of Milton says, "Even now the 
fragrance of the hay may be inhaled in 
Bread street on a balmy summer's night; 
then the meadows were near the doors, and 
the undefiled sky was reflected by an unpol- 
luted stream," for there was little smoke, 
and good fish could still be caught in the 
Thames. 

In Mead's "Milton's England," the au- 
thor describes very fully the sights that 
were familiar to the small boy of the Mil- 
ton household, mentioning especially the 
"Standard in Cheap," a statue showing a 

39 



In the Days of Milton 

man blowing a horn ; and one of the crosses 
erected in memory of Queen Eleanor, as 
noticeable objects in Cheapside. Milton 
was baptized in All Hallows church, where 
his father and mother had been married, 
and the building remained in Bread street 
until 1878. It was probably the place of 
worship for the scrivener and his family. 

His father being a Puritan, the house- 
hold was no doubt a quiet and decorous 
home. There were lessons on the organ 
for the boy, and perhaps also on the bass- 
viol, which the poet played in later years. 
He began his studies early, and was care- 
fully watched by his father so that he 
should not be overworked, for as we know 
from his earliest picture the boy was slight 
and looked delicate. 

This portrait was painted in 161 8, when 
John was ten years old, by Cornelius Jan- 
sen, a Dutch painter recently from Amster- 
dam. It cost about a hundred dollars (in 
our money) , not a high price considering 
that Jansen was employed by noblemen and 
40 



Family and Boyhood 

even by King James himself. The por- 
trait shows a sober-faced little fellow, with 
close-cut auburn hair, wearing a broad lace 
frill, or collar. Beneath the picture when 
it was engraved appeared these lines : 

"When I was yet a child, no childish play 
To me seemed pleasing ; all my mind was set 
Serious to learn and know, and thence to do 
What might be public good ; myself I thought 
Born to that end — born to promote all truth 
And righteous things." 

How absurd these lines would be if they 
were not true! And it was a time in the 
history of England when there was the 
greatest need for such a man. Under 
Elizabeth, in spite of plots now and then, 
and religious dissension natural after Henry 
VIII had declared independence of the 
papal system, the country was united 
against European powers, as she had shown 
when her fleet had defeated the Great Ar- 
mada under the command of an English 
Roman Catholic, Lord Howard. 

As England was loyal to the queen, so 
4i 



In the Bays of Milton 

was she to her people, being ever careful to 
consider their interests, and quick to repress 
the noblemen who presumed on her favor. 
She had chosen wise advisers, and followed 
their counsels. 

When King James came to the throne a 
different period began, and in the struggles 
arising between him and his people John 
Milton bore no small part. It was a time 
of division into parties and sects, of fierce 
controversy by word and pen, of disunion 
and at last of open war. Under Elizabeth 
the state was like a healthy man, able to 
overcome minor disorders by general vital- 
ity; under James, it was like an invalid in 
whose frame disease is engaged in a mortal 
struggle with the forces of health, where 
the result seems long in doubt. 

From beginning to end the life of Milton 
was affected by the state of England, and 
his actions and his writings were due to in- 
fluences only to be understood by knowing 
the history of his times. Thus we have 
already seen that it was a religious differ- 
42 



Family and Boyhood 

ence that made his father a resident of Lon- 
don, and caused John Milton to be born 
and reared in the city instead of in a quiet 
country town. 

We shall not need to follow minutely 
the political events, but must remind our- 
selves of some greater occurrences of the 
time. James came to the throne five years 
before Milton was born, and during these 
five years had managed to lose the sympa- 
thy of the English people. He had been 
wasteful of the public moneys, had imposed 
unpopular customs duties to raise revenues, 
had irritated the English by favoring the 
Scotch after the union of the kingdoms in 
1 604, and had shown a desire and willing- 
ness to claim absolute power for the throne. 
He had established new courts, made law 
by royal proclamations, and quarreled with 
the Parliament over the question of re- 
ligious toleration. 

James and the bishops insisted that those 
who would not wear the regular vestments 
and use the regular ceremonies should not 

43 



In the Days of Milton 

be allowed to preach. Thus he gained the ill- 
will of the Puritans. He also banished the 
Catholic clergy, andthusbecame hated by the 
Catholics, and gave rise to the "Gunpowder 
Plot" of 1605, whereby a few scoundrels 
hoped to kill the king and his sons, bringing 
the little Princess Elizabeth, his daughter, 
to the throne. The plot was betrayed and 
Guy Fawkes captured, to be burned in 
effigy on every Fifth of November since. 

With Ireland, too, James had difficulties, 
and while Milton was yet a little fellow, the 
king had become cordially hated by a large 
part of his subjects; with the Puritans he 
could never be a favorite, and Milton's 
father, as a conscientious Puritan, was not 
likely to teach his son blind loyalty to the 
sovereign. But an actual break with the 
king did not come for many years, and the 
boy was meanwhile receiving his education, 
more interested in the doings of the Ro- 
mans and Greeks than in the questions of 
religious practices, taxation, and the conflict 
between the king and the Parliament. 
44 



CHAPTER IV, 

THE SCHOOL DAYS IN LONDON 

FROM the days when John Milton 
was learning the alphabet to about 
his ninth or tenth year he would 
naturally be little interested in the events of 
the day, but he must have heard his father 
speak of Bacon's becoming Lord Chancel- 
lor, of Raleigh's expedition to South Amer- 
ica in search of gold; of the celebration in 
Germany of the hundredth year of the Prot- 
estant Reformation, of Raleigh's execution ; 
and he could hardly be unaware of the be- 
ginning of the Thirty Years' War in his 
tenth year, for he was a boy of precocious 
intelligence, and the Puritans in England 
saw in the politics of the time the first stir- 
rings of a struggle that was sure to involve 
their own country. 

45 



In the Days of Milton 

Milton's first lessons were received at 
home from a Puritan tutor, of whom little 
is told further than that he came from Es- 
sex, and cut his hair short, as Aubrey, the 
old biographer, puts it, leaving the reader 
to doubt whether his means tutor or pupil. 
No doubt it was the boy who lost his curls, 
otherwise the matter would hardly be men- 
tioned. Besides, the Jansen portrait of 
Milton at ten is the only one with short 
hair. A second tutor was a young curate, 
Thomas Young, a man of ability and learn- 
ing. He had been somewhat persecuted 
for his opinions, was a Scotchman, a Puri- 
tan, and in after life became master of one 
of the colleges at Cambridge. Especially 
he is to be thanked for having taught the 
boy to love poetry and to make verses, for 
which Milton has expressed gratitude in 
his fourth Latin Elegy, written at the age 
of eighteen. 

When Milton was twelve years old he 
was sent to school at St. Paul's, in the 
churchyard of the old cathedral. This had 

4 6 



School Days in London 

been founded by Dr. Colet, a friend of 
Erasmus, over a century before for the free 
teaching of 153 boys, sons of "poor men." 
How Milton came to be admitted unless as 
a paying scholar is not told, for certainly 
his father was not poor. Lilly, another 
friend of the great Erasmus, was the first 
master, and is still remembered as the au- 
thor of the grammar from which Shake- 
speare made quotations in several of his 
plays. In Milton's day the master was a 
Dr. Gill, who had his son for assistant. 
This son had distinguished himself at col- 
lege for his verse-writing, and seems to 
have been helpful and kind, since Milton 
writes to him in later life and speaks grate- 
fully of the help derived from him in con- 
versations. 

This St. Paul's school still exists, but has 
been removed to Hammersmith. Among 
its pupils before Milton were Ben Jonson, 
Camden, the famous antiquary; John Le- 
land, another earlier student of old times ; 
after Milton were the Duke of Marlbo:- 

47 



In the Days of Milton 

ough, Samuel Pepys, "Junius" (if this 
name meant Sir Philip Francis), Halley, 
the astronomer, remembered in the name of 
"Halley's Comet," and Strype, the church 
historian. 

The whole neighborhood of the school 
was packed full of the most interesting 
memorials of old London. First came the 
Cathedral itself, "Old St. Paul's," built on 
the site of an ancient St. Paul's church 
founded in 610. Begun in 1083, tne steeple 
was finished over a century later. It was 
twice or three times injured by fire, and in 
1 561 the steeple had been removed, and not 
replaced in Milton's time, so that he saw a 
great cross-shaped building with a high cen- 
tral tower. Near it was the celebrated 
Powle's (or Paul's) Cross, a sort of out- 
door pulpit with a canopy, "where papal 
bulls were promulgated, heretics made to 
recant and witches to confess," where cap- 
tured flags of the Armada were displayed; 
and in the neighborhood were a bishop's 
palace, a cloister painted with a "dance of 
48 



School Days in London 

death," and a high bell-tower. It was one 
of the city's busiest quarters. 

The cathedral itself was the resort of all 
the fashionable loiterers, "gentry, lords and 
courtiers, and men of all professions," who 
walked in the middle aisle, called "Duke 
Humphrey's Walk" from the tomb of Sir 
John Beauchamp that stood there. From 
eleven to twelve and from three to six was 
an ever changing crowd, gossiping and 
transacting business, even using the font for 
a counter. The choristers had a custom of 
demanding money from any who entered 
the cathedral wearing spurs during divine 
service ! Shakespeare makes Falstaff hire 
Bardolph here, and Ben Jonson laid here a 
scene in one of his plays. 

Still earlier the cathedral had been even 
worse, a "common thoroughfare for people 
with vessels of ale and beer, baskets of 
bread, fish, flesh, and fruit, men leading 
mules, horses and other beasts," as one au- 
thor says ; and this only two generations be- 
fore Milton. There was no livelier place in 
49 



In the Days of Milton 

all England than St. Paul's and its church- 
yard, with its school, its bookshops, and its 
great elm-tree beneath the shade of which 
the citizens took their ease. 

The school itself had a main schoolroom 
wherein the master sat upon a throne of 
office known as the "cathedra/' and the 
windows showed the motto, u Aut doce, aut 
disce, aut discede," meaning, "Learn, teach, 
or leave." To gain admission boys were 
examined in reading, writing and the cate- 
chism. 

Dr. Gill, the headmaster, was not blind 
to the merits of his own tongue as against 
Latin, saying, "I honor Latin, but worship 
the English," and favored retaining good 
English words instead of "new-fangled 
ones," and his influence over Milton must 
have increased the boy's appreciation of the 
power of his own language, which perhaps 
was necessary in one who was studying 
Latin, French, Hebrew and Italian before 
he went to the University. Both father and 
son who taught Milton were graduates of 
5o 



School Days in London 

Oxford, and were considered excellent as 
scholars and as teachers, and Milton was a 
thorough student at their school, working 
hard not only during the day but also late at 
night, as he himself tells us. 

As to his youth Milton has an account in 
his "Defence of the English People," 
which, written in Latin, has been translated 
as follows : "My father destined me from 
a child to the pursuits of literature ; and my 
appetite for knowledge was so voracious 
that from twelve years of age [he entered 
St. Paul's at twelve] I hardly ever left my 
studies, or went to bed before midnight. 
This primarily led to my loss of sight. My 
eyes were naturally weak, and I was subject 
to frequent headaches, which, however, 
could not chill the ardor of my curiosity or 
retard the progress of my improvement. 
My father had me daily instructed in the 
Grammar school and by other masters at 
home." 

Among the works of his schooldays were 
two versions of Psalms that have been pre- 

5i 



In the Days of Milton 

served. They were written just before he 
left school, at the age of fifteen. While ad- 
mitting that these youthful verses were 
creditable, Dr. Johnson says in his pompous 
way: "The products of his vernal fertility 
have been surpassed by many, and partic- 
ularly by his contemporary, Cowley. . . . 
Many have excelled Milton in their first 
essays who never rose to works like 'Para- 
dise Lost.' " Other critics have been kinder 
if less just. 

Of the home life that went with the 
schooldays in London we have little in- 
formation. The members of the household 
were the father, the mother, Anne, the 
daughter, older than the poet, John him- 
self, and the little brother Christopher, who 
was five when John entered school. The 
father played upon the organ, and in so 
studious a household there must have been 
reading aloud either from classic authors or 
from the religious works then so much in 
favor. A neighbor to the Miltons was 
Humphrey Lownes, who was a printer and 
52 



School Days in London 

publisher at the sign of the Star in Bread 
street, and he is said to have lent many 
books to the boy so eager for learning. We 
have no list of these, but Spenser's poems 
were certainly among them, and were great- 
ly admired, and the translation by Joshua 
Sylvester of the "Divine Weeks and 
Works" of Du Bartas may be mentioned 
because some have thought it gave Milton 
hints afterward used in "Paradise Lost." 

Among his schoolfellows Milton's best 
friend was an Italian boy, Charles Diodati, 
son of a doctor who had been exiled from 
Italy because he was a Protestant. Charles 
Diodati went to Oxford University about a 
year and a half before Milton left school, 
intending to study medicine. No doubt this 
friendship had something to do with Mil- 
ton's lifelong liking for Italy and the Ital- 
ians, and may have helped him in learning 
the language in which he early became well 
skilled. This friend of Milton's afterward 
practised medicine in London, but died at 
an early age not especially distinguished. 
53 



In the Days of Milton 

His uncle, John Diodati, was a noted Ital- 
ian Protestant, who had translated the 
Bible into his own tongue about five years 
before Milton was born, and had been ex- 
iled to Geneva. 

American readers will remember the date 
of Milton's entering St. Paul's school by 
connecting it with the landing of the Pil- 
grims, in the same year ; and they may note 
the difference between Puritanism and the 
doctrines of the Pilgrims by considering 
how the latter were being persecuted, fined, 
imprisoned and exiled, while such house- 
holds as that of the Miltons were entirely 
unmolested, the members attending the reg- 
ular church services and conforming in 
nearly every respect to the English church. 

In those early days it was the Pilgrims' 
party that was fighting the battle for liberty 
of religious opinion, while the Puritans 
were just beginning their struggle to estab- 
lish the right of the people of England as 
against the power of the throne. 

King James, during Milton's school days, 
54 



School Days in London 

was acting largely on the advice of his fa- 
vorite "Steenie," the Duke of Buckingham, 
and using all the royal powers to secure the 
money needed for his extravagances. He 
granted monopolies of certain trades and 
manufactures, and these royal privileges 
were bitterly opposed in Parliament, which 
defeated many of them. 

Among the victims of the fight between 
king and Commons was Lord Bacon. He 
was lord chancellor, and gave much good 
advice, but, says the historian Gardiner, 
"he had lived to find his advice was never 
followed." He was accused of bribery and 
admitted the charges to be technically true, 
though he denied any wrongdoing. The 
whole question turned upon the custom of 
receiving of gifts from suitors ; and the best 
opinion to-day is that Bacon was guilty of 
carelessness rather than corruption. He 
was removed from office, fined and impris- 
oned; but the imprisonment was merely 
formal and the fine never exacted, his en- 
emies being satisfied with his downfall. 
55 



In the Days of Milton 

The chief significance of the trial was 
that it proved the power of the House of 
Commons was great enough to reach so 
high an official. 

The Commons next interfered with the 
king in regard to the marriage of his son. 
James was trying to make an alliance with 
Spain, while the Commons petitioned him 
to choose a Protestant princess. The king 
virtually replied to their petition that the 
matter was none of their business, where- 
upon they drew up a protest saying they 
had the right to discuss all matters of public 
concern, and entered this in their journal. 

Then King James sent for the journal 
and tore out the pages where the protest 
was written, and ordered the Parliament to 
be dissolved. It is not strange that the 
breach between the king and the people 
was becoming more serious daily. 

In 1623, the year before Milton left St. 
Paul's school, the king's son, Prince 
Charles, made a journey to Madrid, intend- 
ing to marry the sister of King Philip IV. 

56 



School Days in London 

There were many negotiations, turning 
upon the treatment to be granted the Eng- 
lish Catholics in case the marriage was al- 
lowed by the pope and the king of Spain, 
but at last Prince Charles lost his patience 
and returned to England to report the fail- 
ure of the Spanish marriage and alliance. 

This brought joy to the English people, 
and upon his return, early in October, "all 
London was alight with bonfires in her de- 
light at the failure of the Spanish match," 
and even so quiet a household as that of 
the Miltons must have rejoiced at the fail- 
ure of the attempt to restore Catholicism in 
England. We should be sorry to think that 
the studious little John Milton was busy 
over his books rather than dancing about 
the bonfires. 

Later in the same month there was a 
serious accident in the house of Baron 
Hunsdon at Black Friars. Three hundred 
people had gathered in an upper room to 
hear a sermon by Father Drury, and their 
weight caused the floor to give way. Nine- 
57 



In the Days of Milton 

ty-four of the congregation were killed. 
This was known as "The Fatal Vespers." 
The Protestants chose to regard the acci- 
dent as a divine judgment against the Cath- 
olics for holding the service, though, the 
house being then occupied by the French 
Ambassador, there would seem to have 
been nothing illegal in the proceeding; and 
the Catholics considered the fall of the floor 
to be due to a Protestant plot. In modern 
days most of us would attribute the fall of 
the floor to criminal carelessness in over- 
loading. 

In America the years of Milton's stay at 
St. Paul's school, from 1620 to 1624, were 
notable for the great massacre of the set- 
tlers in Virginia; for the first permanent 
settlements on Manhattan Island and Long 
Island; the building of Fort Orange on the 
site of Albany. In Europe, Richelieu be- 
came cardinal of France; Moliere was 
born in Paris, the son of a furniture dealer; 
Pascal was born in Auvergne. 

In England the year 1623 saw the first 

58 



School Days in London 

collected edition of Shakespeare's plays ; the 
first newspaper was published in 1622 ; and 
the microscope and thermometer came into 
use. As to the other events, those which 
related most closely to Milton have been 
already noted, but Americans may be re- 
minded that New Amsterdam was founded 
in the same year that Milton went to Cam- 
bridge. 

With the end of his schooldays at St. 
Paul's his boyhood was over and his youth 
began. 



59 



CHAPTER V 

MILTON AT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY 

HAVING finished his schooldays, in 
order to carry out the family's 
design of preparing Milton for 
the church it was decided that he should go 
to Cambridge University. There has been 
much discussion why this choice was made 
instead of sending the young man to Ox- 
ford, but the best opinion seems to be that it 
was precisely because of the intention to 
make him a clergyman, and of course a Pur- 
itan clergyman, that Cambridge was pre- 
ferred. The more liberal men were found 
among the Fellows of the Cambridge col- 
leges. Indeed, it has been pointed out by 
more than one writer that Cambridge was 
the source of the more lasting elements of 
the Puritan movement. Here were edu- 
60 



At Cambridge University 

cated Thomas Hooker, the founder of the 
Connecticut colony; John Harvard, who 
gave his name to the oldest American col- 
lege; Francis Higginson, a minister in Sa- 
lem, Massachusetts, who was the ancestor 
of Colonel Higginson, the American writer; 
John Winthrop; President Chauncy of 
Massachusetts, and Roger Williams, the 
founder of Rhode Island, whose entry in 
the college preceded Milton's by only a 
year. As to the Plymouth Colony, Elder 
William Brewster and John Robinson, their 
clergyman, were also Cambridge men, and 
so were many Separatist preachers. 

As Lucia Mead, author of "Milton's 
England," declares, it was these men and a 
few Oxford scholars of similar opinions 
who were the spiritual fathers of Adams, 
Warren, Otis, Hancock, Emerson, Lowell, 
Phillips and Sumner, to select only a few of 
the many she names. 

This statement will indicate without the 
need of any long discussion the nature of 
the opinions which made up the atmosphere 
61 



In the Days of Milton 

of Cambridge during the seven years Mil- 
ton was in residence. 

He entered as what is called a "lesser 
pensioner," that is, he was in the middle 
class as regards his circumstances, not being 
compelled to pay the highest rates, nor tak- 
ing advantage of the very low terms offered 
to that class of students known as "sizars." 
His name was enrolled upon the books of 
Christ's College on February 12, 1624, but 
as this date is Old Style, we must remember 
that, according to our reckoning, the year 
1625 would have begun in the preceding 
January, instead of in the following March. 
The charges which he paid amounted to 
about fifty pounds a year, equivalent to 
more than a thousand dollars now. 

Among the sixteen colleges of Cam- 
bridge, Christ's College was one of the 
largest and most popular. It had been, 
even in his time, established more than a 
hundred years, being, like many of the Eng- 
lish colleges, an outgrowth of an old re- 
ligious house. 

62 



At Cambridge University 

Indeed, the two great universities of 
England owed their origin to communities 
of churchmen gathered together for the 
purpose of leading religious lives or devot- 
ing themselves to study in preparation for 
holy orders. When the Reformation had 
scattered these men abroad and at the same 
time had thrown open the gates of learning 
to the lay inhabitants, it was natural that 
the old religious foundations should be, 
either gradually or at once, transformed 
into institutions of learning. 

The very first institution to which 
Christ's College can be traced was a small 
school founded by a London rector, Will- 
iam Bingham. But although this can be 
dated back to 1436, the school had by the 
beginning of the sixteenth century dwindled 
to four scholars beside its proctor, or mas- 
ter. Extinction would have been its fate 
in a few years except for the effort of Fish- 
er, Bishop of Rochester, who is said to 
have been bred at this school, and conse- 
quently had an eye to its interests. 

63 



In the Days of Milton 

Seeing its woful state, he had recom- 
mended the little institution to the Lady 
Margaret Beaufort. She supplied funds 
to maintain a master, twelve fellows, and 
forty-seven scholars, and she has ever since 
been regarded as the founder of the college, 
there being preserved four portraits of her, 
one of which hangs in the college chapel. 
Bishop Fisher also is commemorated by a 
portrait, and both he and the patroness ap- 
pear in the stained glass of an oriole win- 
dow of the hall. As to the past history of 
the college itself, it is said to have been 
"peaceful and comparatively uneventful. " 
It had not been without distinguished alum- 
ni, some of the best known being the mar- 
tyr Latimer; the antiquarian Leland; Har- 
rington, known as the translator of the 
Italian poet, Ariosto; and, greatest of all, 
Sir Philip Sidney. 

Milton's journey to Cambridge was 
probably made by coach, very likely one of 
the coaches belonging to that Hobson upon 
whom the phrase "Hobson's choice" has 

6 4 



At Cambridge University 

conferred immortality, and concerning 
whom Milton wrote his well-known "Epi- 
taph" — which does not seem to us a strik- 
ing display of humor. In thinking of the 
journey, we must picture to ourselves the 
lumbering vehicle making its way slowly 
over the boggy places and unmended parts 
of the road, or dashing along gaily when 
there was a smoother stretch before it. 

The experiences of young Milton must 
have been much like those of "Tom Brown" 
in going to Rugby, or of "David Copper- 
field" to Salem House School — for though 
coaches were rare in Milton's youth coach- 
ing did not greatly change until steam put 
an end to it as the main means of travel. 

Professor Garnett, speaking of the as- 
pect of the town of Cambridge in Milton's 
time, says that it was "probably not ill-rep- 
resented by Lyne's colored map of half a 
century earlier in the British Museum. 
Piles of stately architecture . . . tower 
. . . over narrow, tortuous, pebble-paved 
streets, bordered with diminutive white- 
65 



In the Days of Milton 

fronted, red-tiled dwellings, mere dolls' 
houses in comparison." Sheep and swine, 
it is said, were not uncommon in the little 
village, and green spaces were interspersed 
among the colleges. The buildings of the 
college were arranged, as was usual in the 
old ecclesiastical system, in a quadrangle 
about a central court. From the street a 
high gateway, defended by a strong tower, 
gave access to the court upon which opened 
the rooms of students, the dining hall and 
offices of the college. An old engraving, 
not far from Milton's time, gives us an ex- 
cellent idea of the general appearance of 
the building. 

An outer gateway led through the square 
tower, and this was flanked by long three- 
story buildings having steeply-pitched roofs 
and dormer windows. For the days when 
each great building might have to serve as 
a fortress were not yet far in the past, and 
defensive towers and battlements remained 
features of all large buildings and even of 
many country houses. More than one gtn- 
66 



At Cambridge University 

tleman's country seat was soon to be the 
scene of regular siege operations. 

Milton's rooms were on the left side of 
the court, as one enters the street gate, the 
first-floor rooms on the first stair. They 
were reached by a narrow stairway, and 
consisted of a small study, whose two win- 
dows looked out on the court, a tiny bed- 
room and cupboard. The latest writers on 
Cambridge say that the rooms remain to- 
day in much the same state as in Milton's 
time, nearly three centuries ago. 

As to the way in which he spent his days, 
ve can obtain a very clear idea of it from 
the detailed account given in the volumi- 
nous "Life of Milton" by Profesor Mas- 
son. He tells us that the day began with 
chapel at five o'clock in the morning, which 
was now and then lengthened by a learned 
discourse pronounced by one of the Fellows 
of the college. 

After chapel, the students returned to 
their rooms for a slight breakfast, consist- 
ing, probably, of bacon and eggs or other 
6 7 



In the Days of Milton 

light food. The same custom exists to-day 
in the English colleges. Then the time 
until the dinner, at noon, was given to lec- 
tures and debates. The dinner was taken 
in the large college hall on the other side of 
the quadrangle from the gateway, a lofty 
room hung with old portraits, and, in the 
case of Christ's College, a very comfortable 
and imposing apartment. The afternoons 
were usually free, the students being obliged 
to report only for supper and evening ser- 
vice in the chapel. 

There was not the same simplicity of 
dress as at present, many of the students 
choosing to wear blue or green or red or 
mixed colors, without uniformity except in 
their hanging sleeves. And even these 
bright colors were not all of the dandyism. 
They sported ribbons upon their shoes, 
wore their hair long and powdered, and put 
wide ruffs about their necks and "fair, fem- 
inine cuffs at the wrists." If such dandies 
were common, we wonder in what costume 
Milton himself must have appeared in or- 



At Cambridge University 

der to win the nickname, u The Lady." 
His portrait, which still hangs in Christ's 
College, shows him with long hair and a 
broad lace collar, but in nothing does the 
costume offend good taste. 

Certainly we have no reason to think that 
it was because of any effeminacy of charac- 
ter that the nickname was bestowed upon 
him, for we learn by his own modest ac- 
count of himself that, though a little under- 
sized and slight, he was very well built and 
active, and especially was an accomplished 
swordsman. He tells us that he daily prac- 
tised himself with the weapon until he felt 
that u armed with it, as he generally was, 
he was in the habit of thinking himself 
quite a match for any one, even were he 
the most robust, and of being perfectly at 
his ease as to any injury that any one could 
offer him, man to man." 

His hair was auburn, curling, and long; 
his face was oval, his eyes dark grey, his 
complexion fair. As he was always dis- 
tinguished for the purity of his life, a not 
69 



In the Days of Milton 

too common characteristic among the col- 
lege men of his time, it may be that he owed 
his nickname to most praiseworthy quali- 
ties. 

As to the course of study at the college, 
mathematics, which has since become the 
distinguishing glory of the Cambridge 
course, was not much cultivated. What is 
called "scholasticism" was still in full sway 
at both universities. Perhaps the shortest 
explanation of the word may be given by 
saying that it consisted in the study of the 
world, of men, and of nature, indirectly — 
rather through the eyes of great teachers 
of the past than by direct observation. 

Still, Cambridge had gleams of the new 
light and was considered more liberal in its 
studies than Oxford, less wedded to the 
traditions of the past. Milton wa3 always, 
above all things, an advocate and adherent 
of liberty, and, naturally, he soon came into 
collision with the set ways of the college 
authorities, so far as they were represented 
by his own tutor. This man, William 
70 



At Cambridge University 

Chappell, afterwards became the Bishop of 
York, and it has been judged from his writ- 
ings that he was a rather pedantic, unsym- 
pathetic man. With Chappell Milton cer- 
tainly had a serious disagreement, and 
Aubrey, one of his early biographers, the 
same gossiping Aubrey from whom we de- 
rive many uncertain traditions in regard to 
Shakespeare, relates that the tutor treated 
Milton with "unkindness," words which 
pre explained by the brief interlined state- 
ment, "whipt him." Dr. Johnson, in his 
"Lives of the Poets" has been much blamed 
for giving full credence to this statement in 
the words : "I am ashamed to relate what 
I fear is true, that Milton was one of the 
last students in either university that suf- 
fered the public indignity of corporal cor- 
rection." But it must be remembered that 
the universities in the time of the Stuarts 
had hardly yet become, so far as discipline 
is concerned, more than large public 
schools, and that Milton was still a boy 
about sixteen years old. It seems that the 
7i 



In the Days of Milton 

story of a caning is in no wise improbable, 
though there appears to be no foundation 
for Johnson's statement that this consisted 
in a public whipping. Whatever is the 
truth about the affair, it is known that for 
a while Milton left Cambridge; but he 
could not have been officially sent away, or 
what is known as "rusticated," because the 
college books contain no record showing 
that he lost credit for his term. Upon his 
return he took another tutor by the name of 
Nathaniel Tovey, said to be a talented man. 
There are in Milton's poems certain ref- 
erences to Cambridge, showing that, for a 
while at least, he considered the town an 
unattractive place, and unsuited to one with 
poetic feelings. From the old critic, War- 
ton, we learn that Milton hated the place, 
and was not only offended at the college dis- 
cipline, but had even conceived a dislike to 
the face of the country, or fields, about 
Cambridge. He certainly complains that 
the fields have no soft shades to attract the 
Muses, and there is something peevish in 
72 



At Cambridge University 

his criticism that Cambridge was a place 
quite incompatible with the votaries of 
Phoebus. The passage occurs in his first 
"Elegy," a Latin poem addressed to his old 
school-fellow, then a student at Oxford, 
Charles Diodati. The lines are: 

"Nuda nee arva placent umbrasque negantia molles; 
Quam male Phcebicolis convenit ille locus !" 

They may be translated : 

"Neither do I find pleasing the bare fields which 

grant no soothing shade; 
How little the place befits followers of Apollo !" 

In order to understand these lines, we 
must remember that many of the trees 
about Cambridge were pollard willows, 
which gave little or no shade. In his later 
writings, however, there are a number of 
passages showing that whatever may have 
been his feeling toward Cambridge during 
his earlier years, he afterward came to look 
back upon his days there with pleasure, and 
considered that on the whole he had been 
well treated by the authorities. 
73 



In the Days of Milton 

His residence at Cambridge covered alto- 
gether seven years, from 1625 to 1632. 
During his first year occurred the death of 
King James. The historian Green tells us 
that this first of the Stuart kings died with 
the consciousness of failure. He had op- 
posed the power of Parliament in vain, and 
left it even stronger than at the beginning 
of his reign. He had opposed the Puri- 
tans, and Puritanism was becoming ever 
more powerful. Attempting to make the 
privileges of the crown greater than ever, 
he had been compelled to stand by while 
the Commons had impeached and degraded 
his ministers of state, their only means of 
attacking the throne. Worst result of all, 
his conduct had lost for the crown that 
loyalty upon which the Tudor monarchs 
had been able to rely in every stress. The 
courts of the church had by him been so 
dominated that he had conferred upon 
them a part of his own unpopularity. As 
to the position of England toward Euro- 
pean powers, James had succeeded in losing 
74 



At Cambridge University 

nearly all the prestige that had been built up 
under Elizabeth. 

But the historian shrewdly says that the 
most fatal mistake made by the first Stuart 
king was in that step which James regarded 
as the most successful of all his policy — 
his son's French marriage. For the new 
queen, Henrietta Maria, brought to 
strengthen the easy nature of his son 
Charles a "fierce and despotic temper," that 
tinctured with animosity his whole long 
struggle against the growing power of the 
English people. 

In these events Milton was keenly inter- 
ested, though it is not likely that he or any 
of the young fellows at Cambridge then 
foresaw that the struggle between king and 
Commons would result in open war. Mil- 
ton was a hard student, and besides his 
regular work, wrote in Latin many letters 
to his old school friend, Diodati, and to his 
teachers, Drs. Gill and Young. He was 
also beginning to produce poetical work of 
the highest value. From 1625 to 1632, 
75 



In the Days of Milton 

the years of his college course, appeared the 
poems, "On the Death of a Fair Infant," 
U A Vacation Exercise," "Ode to the Na- 
tivity," and the lines on Shakespeare that 
were prefixed to the plays in 1632. 

The "Fair Infant" was his own niece, 
the first child of his sister, Mistress Phil- 
lips, and the lines contain a reference to the 
plague that then so raged in London as to 
cause Parliament to hold its sessions in Ox- 
ford. 

No account of the days preceding the 
nineteenth century can be complete without 
some notice of the terrible visitations of the 
plague, although it is probably true that 
different epidemics have been described by 
this same name. Only five years before 
Milton's birth it had caused the death of 
thirty-eight thousand people in London, 
and the plague was also widely spread 
throughout England. The same year saw 
the death of one million persons in Egypt. 
Traces of this great visitation lasted, even 
in London, for some eight years, nearly 

76 



At Cambridge University 

twelve thousand, for example, having died 
in 1609, when Milton was in his babyhood. 
The next great attack came in 1625, and 
was nearly as fatal to London citizens. 
This is the visitation of the disease already 
referred to. 

Throughout Milton's life we shall see 
references showing the prevalence of 
plague from time to time until we come to 
1665, when Milton was about sixty years 
old, and at this time there was so severe an 
epidemic that it has been known in English 
history ever since as "The Great Plague." 
It is estimated that this caused the death of 
seventy thousand people. We have ac- 
counts from the pens of De Foe, Pepys, and 
Evelyn of the conditions that prevailed in 
London during this last and greatest attack 
of the dreaded disease. And from this we 
are able to judge of the conditions that ex- 
isted during even the lighter visitations. 
Space will not permit us to picture even 
briefly what is meant by the statement that 
"the plague prevailed" at any given time in 
77 



In the Days of Milton 

England. It will be enough to remind the 
reader of the pitiful custom of imprisoning 
the inmates of an inflicted house in their 
dwelling and marking upon the door "God 
have mercy upon us," beneath the symbol 
of the cross; the taking away of the dead 
for burial in great pits during the night; 
the paying of money into vases of vinegar 
set upon counters of shops as a means of 
disinfection; the incidents of cowardice or 
villainy, and the even more frequent exhibi- 
tions of devoted heroism. To the honor 
of many English physicians it should be re- 
membered that, despite the horror with 
which all were inspired by the mysterious 
visitation, many of them were brave enough 
to study its symptoms and course minutely, 
and even to risk their lives in dissecting the 
bodies of the dead. 

It is fortunate that we have in the diaries 
of Pepys and Evelyn careful accounts of 
their own experiences, and that De Foe, in 
his almost equally true fiction, has preserved 
for us a picture of London during the 

78 



At Cambridge University 

plague, for, otherwise, owing to the famil- 
iarity of men of the time with this horrible 
state of affairs, we could not reconstruct any 
rightful representation of a town or city 
during these epidemics. The old writers, 
for the most part, seem to look upon the 
plague as a mysterious and unavoidable vis- 
itation of nature. Even in our own times 
there have been outbreaks indicating that 
this old foe of mankind is not yet killed, 
but is kept in check only by the vigilance of 
medical science. 

The child of whom Milton writes seems 
to have owed its death not to this disease 
but to the severity of a protracted cold sea- 
son that was coincident with it. Probably 
this child died in the sister's house, which 
wai in the Strand, near Charing Cross. 
Milton's poem contains much more evi- 
dence of classical learning and skill in versi- 
fying than proof of deep human feeling. 

Besides the poems already named, Mil- 
ton produced a number of literary works in 
Latin, some of which were read before the 
79 



In the Days of Milton 

members of his college. The ceremony for 
which he prepared the piece now generally 
known by the name of "A Vacation Exer- 
cise," was a student's occasion of festivity 
and fun. The presiding officer over this 
college revel was known as the " Father, " 
and much of the speech which Milton pre- 
pared for one of these occasions is made up 
of joking references to be appreciated only 
by his fellow students. In short, we may 
look upon the lines called "A Vacation Ex- 
ercise" as part of a serio-comic address writ- 
ten for delivery by the college boy before 
his fellows during a proceeding not unlike 
many mock ceremonies that exist in Amer- 
ican colleges of our own day. Old Yale 
men will remember with affection their 
"Thanksgiving Jubilee" as an example of a 
similar merrymaking in an American uni- 
versity. 

Milton's "Exercise" is therefore not to 

be taken too seriously. The one work of 

his college days which remains of vital 

value to us is his grand ode, "On the Morn- 

80 



At Cambridge University 

ing of the Nativity." It was composed 
when Milton was twenty-one and had been 
more than five years at Cambridge. From 
another production, addressed to his friend 
Diodati, we learn that this ode was begun 
on Christmas day, 1629. Henry Hallam, 
while thinking it less popular than most of 
the author's works, considers it perhaps the 
finest ode in the language. Speaking of its 
grandeur, simplicity, breadth of treatment 
and ordered imagination, he calls it "Pin- 
daric," meaning that it is worthy of being 
classed with the work of him who is con- 
sidered the unequalled master of this form 
of poetry, 



81 



CHAPTER VI 

milton's residence at horton 

IN "Milton's England," the very inter- 
esting book before quoted, the author 
tells us that there were in Cambridge 
during Milton's stay signs of less strictness 
in following church doctrine. She gives as 
illustrations the facts that meat was eaten 
on fast days (Friday), that the clergy at- 
tached to the college did not hesitate now 
and then to invent their own prayers, in- 
stead of following the regular liturgy, and 
that the congregations contained many who 
were lax in small observances considered 
important by strict ritualists. 

As not many years after this we find Mil- 
ton strongly in sympathy with Puritan doc- 
trine, it is not likely that as a student he 
was shocked or offended by these signs of 
82 



Residence at Horton 

falling away from strict churchmanship. 
He severely criticises those students who 
were preparing to be clergymen for taking 
part in theatrical shows. He speaks of 
them "on the stage, writhing and unboning 
their clergy limbs to all the antic and dis- 
honest gestures of trinculos, and buffoons. 
. Where they acted and over-acted 
among other young scholars I was a specta- 
tor. They thought themselves excellent 
men, and I thought them fools." These 
vords are taken from the life of Milton, 
written by Toland late in the seventeenth 
century. And yet, within a few years, we 
shall find Milton composing masques to be 
performed before the inmates of certain 
noble houses, so we may be sure that his ob- 
jection to the students' acting was simply 
based upon his belief that it was improper 
for students of divinity to appear upon the 
stage in undignified roles. 

While he was ever a reformer and ready 
to speak his mind concerning whatever he 
considered an abuse, yet his excellent schol- 

83 



In the Days of Milton 

arship and irreproachable behavior while at 
Cambridge gained him first the respect and 
afterwards even the affection of the author- 
ities and the students. In several places 
where he refers to Cambridge life and 
speaks of disagreements with the authori- 
ties, it is always upon some question con- 
cerning the studies pursued at college, and 
he never refers to any disagreements upon 
personal matters. Milton in later years 
writes that he found "more than ordinary 
respect, above any of my equals, at the 
hands of those courteous and learned men, 
the fellows of that college wherein I spent 
seven years." 

He refers also to the wish of the college 
authorities that he should remain among 
them after completing his student days ; but 
the regulations of the college made this im- 
possible unless he should take orders, and 
by this time Milton had decided that he 
would not go into the church. In order to 
take his degrees, he had to sign the Thirty- 
nine Articles of the Church of England, 
84 



Residence at Horton 

and this he must have done. It seems, 
therefore, that his objection to the church 
as a career came from his fear that it would 
affect his liberty of opinion, rather than 
from any fixed objection to its declared doc- 
trines. His own words are: "He who 
would take orders must subscribe slave." 

The position of the church at about the 
time Milton left Cambridge was such that 
he felt no man could attach himself to it 
officially without sacrificing his independ- 
ence. The church was entirely under the 
control of the celebrated Archbishop Laud. 
Opinions differ widely as to Laud's charac- 
ter, but there is no question that his meth- 
ods were those of an autocrat. Believing 
that the struggle between Puritanism and 
the church was one wherein the very life of 
the institution was at stake, Laud enforced 
by persecution the strictest obedience to all 
church mandates and requirements and 
suppressed every form of liberalism. In 
this he was entirely supported by the king 
and by the ecclesiastical courts, and Puri- 

85 



In the Days of Milton 

tanism was not yet strong enough to make 
any fight against so able a man when backed 
by all the power of the throne and the 
church. 

When we read of persecution in the days 
of John Milton, we must remember that 
what is signified by the word is something 
more than the mere fining or even imprison- 
ing of offenders. England was not yet so 
civilized as to be free from the barbarism 
of the Middle Ages. Offending clergy- 
men were pilloried, whipped, and at times 
were branded with hot irons upon the 
cheeks or otherwise infamously treated. 

This severity of the law was general in 
those days. The penalty of death was in- 
flicted for many offences which now would 
be punishable only by a short imprisonment. 
In Milton's life mention is made of the ex- 
ecution of a child nine years old for having 
set fire to some buildings, and we must not 
err upon the side of moderation in imagin- 
ing how offending church members were 
treated. 

86 



Residence at Horton 

Milton was now in the position of a 
young man without any definite vocation. 
Fortunately, the question of making a liv- 
ing did not press him to a decision, his fath- 
er, the London scrivener, having so pros- 
pered that he was able to retire from the 
more active part of his office work. He 
had taken into partnership a young man 
capable of looking after the London busi- 
ness, and was thus free to retire from the 
city to a country home. He had rented a 
comfortable house u on the site of the Byr- 
ken House, near the church," in the little 
village of Horton, Buckinghamshire, which 
was less than a day's journey from London, 
and within sight of Windsor Castle. 

Horton seems to have been a typical 
English village, consisting of a central open 
space where the main roads met and about 
which clustered the more important town 
buildings — the tavern, the church — stand- 
ing a little back from the thoroughfare, and 
the better residences. The country round 
about had a profusion of that rich verdure 

87 



In the Days of Milton 

of which England and Ireland alone seem 
to have the secret. It was a well-watered 
country, and combined all the beauties of 
quiet valley scenery in a fertile, settled land. 
There were beautiful groves of trees, wide 
expanses of meadow land, shady lanes, 
softly-moulded hills and prosperous farms, 
with their low, thatched roofs all clustered 
about the central church tower. 

To-day we cannot be sure that any of 
the town remains except the old church 
where the Milton family attended. The 
long low building extending back from the 
battlemented tower and watch tower seems 
to American eyes peculiarly English. 

Milton's brother, Christopher, had re- 
solved to enter the legal profession, and 
Milton, having given up the church, de- 
cided to prepare himself for a career de- 
voted wholly to scholarship and literature. 
Not only some of his friends, but even his 
father, must have expressed disapproval of 
his course, for in letters, and in the Latin 
poem, "Ad Patrem," we find the poet justi- 
88 



Residence at Horton 

fying himself for his choice. This poem to 
his father, of which Cowper made a trans- 
lation, is a very graceful recognition of the 
father's kindness in allowing him, free from 
the cares of life, to give himself up to study 
and reflection amid the scenes of a beautiful 
English country town. 

Although Milton himself speaks of this 
retirement as a time of idleness, and re- 
proaches himself in his "Sonnet on Arriv- 
ing at the Age of Twenty-three," we are 
sure that no young man of the present day 
would like to undertake the tasks which the 
young Englishman completed in the next 
few years ; for it was a time of severe class- 
ical study, to say nothing of the production 
of the great poems, "L' Allegro," "II Pen- 
seroso," and "Lycidas," of the fragment 
called "Arcades," the masque, "Comus," 
and a number of shorter pieces. 

These, added to the poems which he had 
already produced while at Cambridge, 
make up an exceedingly creditable amount 
of poetical work for a young man hardly 

8 9 



In the Days of Milton 

more than twenty years of age. Mr. Gar- 
nett, a recent biographer, says: "We may 
be sure that he read the classics of all the 
languages which he understood. His 
copies of Euripides, Pindar, Aratus and Ly- 
cophron, are, or have been recently extant 
with marginal notes, proof that he weighed 
what he read." We know also from his 
letters that he went deeply into history, 
especially that of the Greeks. He also 
found time to make trips to London for 
lessons in mathematics and music. 

Of course, a life so studious and in so 
quiet a place, has not left many traces ex- 
cept in the learning which it enabled Milton 
to show in the work of his later years. 
From the time he left Cambridge until that 
of his first trip abroad, we may count more 
than five years as given to study and reflec- 
tion at his father's house in Horton. The 
only happenings needing to be recorded are 
the poems produced during this period, the 
death of his mother, in April, 1637, an< ^ 
that of one of his college friends, Edward 
90 



Residence at Horton 

King, on August ioth of the same year. 
Young King must have been an attractive 
personality, since his death produced a vol- 
ume of tributes to his memory from a num- 
ber of his young college friends, and, in 
particular, was the occasion of the compo- 
sition of "Lycidas," the only one of them 
worthy to survive in the annals of English 
poetry. 

In the editions of Milton's poems will Be 
found fuller accounts of the circumstances 
under which were written the minor pieces 
produced during his life at Horton, but in 
regard to the more important of these a 
brief account must be given, since they were 
written for occasions that serve to give us 
an insight into the conditions of the young 
poet's life and surroundings after leaving 
college. 

It has been remarked that Milton seemed 
to require some external motive to induce 
mm to undertake any poetical work. He 
never wrote simply for the sake of produc- 
ing verse, but always in response to some 
91 



In the Days of Milton 

external invitation or pressure. It will be 
interesting to consider in regard to the 
works composed by him between his gradu- 
ation and his visit to the continent what in- 
fluences brought him to their composition. 
In regard to the Horton poems, as we 
may call them, it will be necessary to say 
here only a few words, telling of their re- 
lation to Milton's life and the causes that 
produced them. The two poems, U L' Al- 
legro" and "II Penseroso," are, of course, 
companion pieces and have been variously 
interpreted. Each bears on the surface a 
very plain meaning, for the lines in each 
case deal with a day in the life of a youth 
affected either by a spirit of cheerfulness or 
of melancholy. "L'Allegro" describes, in 
general, any rural day, while its companion 
piece finds its beginning in the evening 
hours. But some have seen in the two 
poems a reflection of Milton's state of mind 
when he was yet hesitating in regard to his 
future career. An English editor thus puts 
the question which the young poet is be- 
92 



Residence at Horton 

lieved to have had before his mind : "Was 
he to walk with those who cheerfully plod- 
ded on and took what came of sunshine or 
of storm, using his superior culture as a so- 
lace and delight, or with those other spirits, 
more sombre and more stern, who 'scorn 
delights and live laborious days'?" 

This is not to say that Milton was in 
doubt whether to cast in his lot with the 
Puritans, for, in raising the question he had 
rather in view the purpose to which he was 
to devote his own life and his poetical pow- 
ers. The discussion in his own mind has 
given rise to a fair comparison of the two 
lives he had proposed to himself, and it is 
their respective delights which he considers 
in the two poems we have mentioned. 
There is, in the Clarendon Press edition of 
Milton's poems, a long discussion setting 
forth the images wherein Milton embodied 
the delights to be found in each course of 
life. Too long to quote here, this introduc- 
tion to the poems, by R. C. Browne, is ably 
written and well worth reading, as it en- 

93 



In the Days of Milton 

ables us to see in the lines an importance 
they would otherwise lack, and from it we 
may gather a better idea of what was meant 
by the Puritan movement in England and 
how it affected the mind of a man of high 
principles, wide learning, and sensitive con- 
science such as was Milton, even in these 
early days. 

In the same way there is an inner mean- 
ing in the playfulness of the masques which 
Milton wrote at about the same time. The 
first of these, entitled "Arcades," is no more 
than a fragment, but it is looked upon as in 
a way a forerunner of the more elaborate 
"Comus." It is believed to have been 
written certainly within the three years pre- 
ceding 1634. Both w r ere written in honor 
of two noble ladies belonging to the same 
family. One was the Countess Dowager 
of Derby, then about seventy years of age. 
To her the poet Spenser had dedicated his 
"Tears of the Muses," and to her two sis- 
ters were also dedicated two other poems 
by the same author. Her husband was 
94 



Residence at Horton 

Lord Strange, the patron of a group of 
players and well known to Nash, Green, 
and other of Shakespeare's associates. He 
had before his death become Earl of Derby. 
After her husband's death, she married an 
eminent lawyer and statesman, Sir Thomas 
Egerton, who afterwards acquired several 
other titles and was lord chancellor to 
King James. One of the countess dow- 
ager's daughters married the son of her 
second husband; another daughter was the 
wife of Lord Hastings, who became Earl 
of Huntington, and thus acquired posses- 
sion of the estates, Ashby de la Zouch, 
known to all readers of "Ivanhoe" as the 
scene of the tournament described in that 
novel. To rea'd of the various descend- 
ants and connections of this noble lady is 
like studying several pages of "Burke's 
Peerage." And there is no reason why we 
should burden our memories with their 
names. 

Some of the younger relatives of the 
countess dowager had determined to pre- 
95 



In the Days of Milton 

pare a festivity in her honor at her country 
estate at Ashbridge, Hertfordshire. 

Masques, after having been for a time 
in less favor than ordinary plays, were the 
usual form which entertainments took in 
the country houses of the nobility. The 
masque was something like an opera; that 
is, it was a formal entertainment consisting 
of poetical text set to music and arranged 
2 3 a dramatic spectacle. So far as the 
music of Milton's masques was concerned, 
we need know only the circumstance that 
it was the work of a musician named Henry 
Lawes, attached to the Chapel Royal, and 
also enjoying the friendship and patronage 
of the countess' family. Lawes was cele- 
brated in his time as a composer, and was 
very popular. He had set to music songs 
by many noted poets, and is mentioned by 
Herrick as well as by Milton and other 
poets. It is believed that Milton, probably 
because of his father's career as a composer, 
had long been intimate with this Henry 
Lawes and by him was asked to prepare the 

9 6 



Residence at Horton 

text for the masque to be given at the coun- 
tess' home. 

If the masque was written about 1630, 
Milton was then twenty-two, and Lawes 
thirty years of age, and it was natural that 
he should be appealed to to furnish the 
libretto for the entertainment. Both the 
"Arcades" and "Comus" were produced in 
this way, and were performed in the open 
air before the mansion known as Harefield 
House, in the presence of the aged lady in 
whose honor they were composed. The 
"Arcades" may have been finished by an- 
other writer; at all events, what Milton has 
written breaks off in the middle. But "Co- 
mus," which is a much more ambitious pro- 
duction, was designed for a more important 
occasion, and has come complete from Mil- 
ton's hand. It deserves the closest study, 
as the circumstances of its production give 
an excellent idea of the entertainments 
given by the great nobles just before the 
clouds of civil war overspread the land. 



97 



CHAPTER VII 

THE VISIT TO THE CONTINENT 

MILTON'S life divides into well de- 
fined periods. So far we have 
seen him a school-boy in the 
centre of London ; a young collegian living 
his own life in Cambridge until he had won 
the esteem of his associates, and convinced 
them of his unusual ability; a quiet student 
and a poet in the retirement of his father's 
house at Horton. 

This third period had shown the natural 
bent of his mind when guided rather by 
tastes than by a sense of duty. The five 
years in Horton had been marked by steady 
growth in poetic power. The minor poems 
were succeeded by the marvelous pair, 
"L'Allegro" and "II Penseroso," in which 
the young poet set forth his choice in life, 

9? 



Visit to the Continent 

and these by "Comus," a proof that in a 
form of composition often chosen for the 
most frivolous conceits, Milton could 
preach the doctrines he believed. In u Ly- 
cidas," again, it was not enough to express 
grief for his friend's death, and Milton 
makes the lines a means of attacking the 
corruption of the churchmen. 

Each of his poems seems thus to be the 
expression of an opinion, and to be written 
because Milton felt that he should speak 
out. Indeed, he described himself as "by 
nature slow and reluctant to write." He 
had decided to devote his life to writing, 
and to writing with purpose; but he had no 
wish to write until fully prepared, and was 
resolved to make his preparation thorough. 
In 1637 his mother died, and it is probable 
Milton would have remained with his 
father except that his brother Christopher 
came with his wife to make their home at 
Horton, possibly because of the prevalence 
of the plague in London. This left the 
elder son free, and it was natural that John 
Ltf& 99 



In the Days of Milton 

Milton should take advantage of his free- 
dom to visit foreign countries, especially 
Italy, then still regarded as the home of 
learning. There were in those days few 
facilities for carrying baggage unless one 
traveled with his own caravan, and Mil- 
ton's only companion was a single servant. 
His father made him a reasonable allow- 
ance for his expenses, and Milton left Eng- 
land fully prepared to extract all possible 
benefit from his journey. 

The fifteen months preceding Milton's 
departure had been eventful for him, and 
for his country. In January, 1637, tne 
Countess of Derby died at HarefieldHouse, 
where "Arcades" had been performed; in 
February the elder Milton had been en- 
gaged in a lawsuit respecting some trust 
funds confided to him and was cleared of 
blame; in April Milton lost his mother, 
and not long afterward came the visitation 
of the plague, causing deaths even at Hor- 
ton. 

Of public events in England, Milton 
100 



Visit to the Continent 

must have been interested in the death of 
Ben Jonson, and his burial, upright, in 
the aisle of the Abbey; in the ordinance 
forbidding Puritans to emigrate, and espe- 
cially in the failure of the attempt to force 
a form of church service upon the Scotch 
churches. He may have heard how the 
woman Jenny Geddes showed her pious in- 
dignation by hurling her little folding stool 
at the minister, and he must have known of 
the riots beginning in Greyfriars' Church, 
Edinburgh. The trial of John Hampden 
for refusing to pay the ship-money tax took 
place in December, and was no doubt eager- 
ly discussed by the household at Horton, 
for Milton would understand that Hamp- 
den's resistance was really a fight for the 
people against the king, since it tested the 
power of the throne to raise money without 
calling upon Parliament. There was a 
great vessel, the "Sovereign of the Seas," 
launched in October, which afterward be- 
came a noted warship in the annals of the 
navy; but it is thought that the people con- 

101 



In the Days of Milton 

sidered her an extravagance, and that this 
belief caused some of the opposition to the 
ship-money taxes. John Evelyn speaks of 
riding to Rochester and Chatham to see this 
vessel, "the richest that ever spread cloth 
before the wind, and especially for this 
remarkable, that her building cost his 
Majesty the affections of his subjects, who 
quarreled with him for a trifle, refusing to 
contribute either to their own safety or to 
his glory." 

An event making the year notable was 
the printing by Lawes of Milton's "Co- 
mus," though that title was not used, the 
poem being called only "A Mask Presented 
at Ludlow Castle," and signed "J. M."; 
and the death of Edward King, commem- 
orated by "Lycidas," belongs to August of 
this same year, though the elegy was not 
published until 1638. 

Just before leaving England, Milton sent 

the quarto of forty pages that contained 

"Comus" to Sir Henry Wotton, who was 

the Provost of Eton College. This old 

102 



Visit to the Continent 

knight of seventy years of age had been 
abroad for many years as ambassador and 
must have met Milton not long before re- 
ceiving the book, as he expresses his pleas- 
ure in discovering that the poem was by his 
new acquaintance, and writes to Milton a 
letter of extravagant praise and gratitude. 
Sir Henry's praise meant much, as he was 
himself an author and considered an able 
critic, besides being known to both the fash- 
ionable and the literary world in England 
and the Continent. 

Provided with letters of introduction 
from Sir Henry Wotton and other friends,, 
attended by his servant, and probably carry- 
ing all his baggage in a small chest or case 
not too large to be borne upon a horse's 
back, Milton set off in April, 1638, intend- 
ing to go first to Paris, probably by the old 
route that would take him to London, 
thence to Canterbury and then to Dover, 
where lay the packet running to Calais. 
His experiences upon the road were likely 
to be uneventful, being only along well trav- 
103 



In the Days of Milton 

eled routes from one tavern to another. 
There were as yet few established stage- 
coaches, and traveling by coach was unusual 
and expensive, being practised mainly by 
the great nobles. In fact, even a genera- 
tion later, traveling more luxuriously than 
on horseback was considered effeminate and 
unworthy of a man in full health and vigor. 

We might wish that Milton had fol- 
lowed the advice of James Howell, author 
of the "Familiar Letters," and had kept a 
full diary or had written minutely to his 
friends on account of his experiences, so 
that we might see the Stuarts' England as 
he saw it. 

In Evelyn's and in Pepys' "Diaries" we 
have a view of the times, but both were 
royalists, and could not see with Milton's 
eyes ; besides, neither could realize that the 
world would change so greatly within two 
or three centuries, and their way of life be- 
come as foreign to us as the life of the Ro- 
man's and Greeks to them. The unusual 
things we know, for they were recorded; 
104 



Visit to the Continent 

but the minor, trifling happenings of every 
day, familiar to every one, being unde- 
scribed remain undiscoverable by antiqua- 
rians. Shakespeare's plays, for example, 
present many puzzles of this nature. We 
do not know exactly what "sack" was, 
though it is a wine mentioned familiarly 
by all seventeenth century writers, and we 
can guess nearly what it must have been. 

John Milton, dressed for his journey, 
must have been provided with a good 
broad-brimmed hat and stout cloak for pro- 
tection against rain and wind. His breech- 
es were short, and over his stockings, prob- 
ably black or gray, because Puritanically 
inclined men avoided the bright colors pre- 
ferred by Royalists, he would wear long 
riding boots with spurs. Since square-toed 
shoes were fashionable, Milton is likely to 
have chosen pointed toes. He wore a 
leather belt, for suspenders did not exist; 
and so skillful a swordsman would not be 
without his weapon on a journey. Pistols 
he may have had, though these are less 

!05 



In the Days of Milton 

likely except in a trip considered dangerous. 
His collarwas plain, what is known as afall- 
ingband,tied at the front with tasseled cord. 

The roads were likely to be bad even at 
best, almost impassable in marshy districts. 
We read in Pepys' "Diary" that often par- 
ties had to go in single file along a narrow 
strip of firm ground, to keep out of the 
quaggy spots, and this made night traveling 
dangerous. 

Once arrived at the irin, the travelers 
would find good quarters, for food was 
plentiful and not dear. The furniture of 
the time was usually made to last, of good 
quality, and well upholstered, and inns were 
well kept and clean. A modern traveler 
might find even to-day taverns in rural Eng- 
land not greatly differing from those of 
Milton's time save that kerosene lamps 
have replaced candles, coal fires are com- 
moner, and clocks are not curiosities. The 
differences between his time and ours would 
be found mainly in dress, in our greater 
variety of food, and in ways of speaking. 
1 06 



Visit to the Continent 

Crossing the English Channel to France 
was in those days something of a voyage, 
the passage being made in small sail-boats, 
and those were fortunate who happened 
upon calm weather, since there was time 
enough for a landsman to experience all the 
pangs of sea-sickness. 

Arrived in France, Milton goes at once 
to Paris to deliver the letters of introduc- 
tion given by Sir Henry Wotton, or his 
other friends, one being to Lord Scuda- 
more, the English Ambassador to Louis 
XIII, whose power was then administered 
by the great Cardinal Richelieu. The 
France and Paris of Milton's visit are those 
of "D'Artagnan" and the "Musketeers," 
and in the pages of Dumas we find a picture 
of the land and the city. If it be not in all 
respects a true picture yet it is a portraiture 
so vivid that it will give us a better idea of 
the life of the times than is found in any 
historical work. 

The Paris of 1638 was, like all great 
European cities of that day, a vast walled 
107 



In the Days of Milton 

fortress. There was an outer line of ram- 
parts inclosing somewhat open fields, and 
an inner wall defending the more thickly 
settled streets. So far as the houses, streets 
and general customs are concerned, there 
was not a marked difference between the 
English and the French capital. From the 
letters of James Howell, written in 1620, 
one might argue that Paris was not even so 
clean as London, and that there was more 
traffic in the highways, more mud, and mud 
of a peculiarly unsavory odor. Howell 
says "it may be smelt many miles off." He 
likewise says Paris seems to have more in- 
habitants than London because the French 
capital is round in area, so that "the pas- 
sengers wheel about and meet oftener than 
they used to do in the long continued streets 
of London." One notable building, the 
Palais Cardinal, was then being finished by 
Richelieu. It became, when presented to 
the king to calm his jealousy of its magnifi- 
cence, the famous Palais Royal in which so 
much French history was transacted; but it 
108 



• 



Visit to the Continent 

has been destroyed and rebuilt so often that 
the present colonnade of shops and cafes is 
little like what Milton saw. 

Though Milton's visit was eighteen 
years later than Howell's letter, it is likely 
that there had been little change in the 
meantime. Certainly some of the dangers 
of the night in Paris streets as recounted by 
Howell would fit very readily into the pages 
of "The Three Musketeers." Milton as a 
quiet and unassuming student probably kept 
indoors o' nights, and we have no annals of 
any sword-play between the young English 
poet and any cavalier of the style of Aramis 
or Porthos. Nor should we know it if he 
saw the young Moliere, then a quiet student 
of sixteen years, and at school. 

Milton's visit brought him into contact 
with a different class. He was introduced 
by Lord Scudamore, or by his letters from 
home, to Grotius, then ambassador from 
Queen Christina of Sweden, whose strange 
career is told so romantically by Nathaniel 
Hawthorne in his "True Stories," and to 
109 



In the Days of Milton 

whom Milton in later years sent a compli- 
mentary verse in Latin, composed in the 
name of Cromwell. Grotius is hardly less 
interesting than the strange sovereign he 
represented; he for learning and independ- 
ence, she for eccentricity and ability. Hugo 
Groot was his native name (Grotius being 
a Latinizing of the Dutch original) , and he 
was born in Delft sixty-five years before. 
In youth famous for Latin tragedies and 
poems, Grotius was in middle life impris- 
oned for his opinions, escaped after two 
years by the help of his wife, returned to 
Holland in 1631, and then went to Sweden 
whence he was sent to Paris as ambassador, 
two years before Milton's coming. The 
l vo men no doubt had much in common, 
though there were thirty-four years be- 
tween their ages; and Grotius may have 
conversed with Milton upon a favorite pro- 
ject for uniting the Protestant churches of 
Sweden, Denmark, Norway and England; 
at all events he gave Milton letters to Eng- 
lish merchants on his route, 
no 



Visit to the Continent 

Milton did not stay long in Paris, being 
eager to reach Italy. He went southeast 
to Nice and there embarked for Genoa, and 
after making brief visits to Leghorn and 
Pisa, at length reached Florence. 

The long friendship and intimacy with 
Diodati explains Milton's greater interest 
in Italy as compared with France, and he 
tells us that Florence especially was by him 
"particularly esteemed for the elegance of 
its dialect, its genius, and its taste." Two 
months were spent in Florence, and were 
passed in "intimacy with many persons of 
rank and learning." Milton enjoyed the 
literary societies and meetings then fashion- 
able, remarking that they tend to the "dif- 
fusion of knowledge and the preservation 
of friendship." 

The men mentioned by him are those 
prominent in these circles and noted for 
their interest in the sort of learning then 
popular in Italy — the study of language 
and the discussion of the principles of liter- 
ary composition, for it was a time of criti- 
iii 



In the Days of Milton 

cism and discussion rather than production, 
and its scholars were men of learning rather 
than of wisdom or genius. Indeed, Mil- 
ton quotes the Italians themselves as say- 
ing "nothing had been there written these 
many years but flattery and fustian." 

Of most interest to us are Milton's meet- 
ings in Italy with the great Galileo and with 
Manso, an Italian gentleman to whom Mil- 
ton afterward addressed a long Latin 
poem. The visit to Galileo especially 
touches the imagination. Born in the same 
year as Shakespeare, Galileo after a long 
life as philosopher and teacher, was now 
living in exile from his native city under 
sentence by the Inquisition, because of his 
heretical views in holding that the earth 
moved around the sun when the Scriptures 
plainly set forth the contrary. 

Landor in his "Imaginary Conversa- 
tions" has written for us a supposed account 
of Milton's meeting with the old philoso- 
pher, who had become blind the year before 
this visit; and in his poem "Italy" the poet 
112 



Visit to the Continent 

Rogers has also given some beautiful lines 
to a description of the same incident : 
Rogers' lines to Arcetri are these : 

"Nearer we hail 
Thy sunny slope, Arcetri, sung of old 
For its green wine ; dearer to me, to most, 
As dwelt on by that great Astronomer, 
Seven years a prisoner at the city gate, 
Let in but in his grave-clothes. 

There, unseen, 
In manly beauty Milton stood before him, 
Gazing with reverent awe — Milton, his guest, 
Just then come forth, all life and enterprise ; 
He in his old age and extremity 
Blind, at noon-day exploring with his staff. 

Little then 
Did Galileo think whom he received : 
That in his hand he held the hand of one 
Who could requite him — who would spread his name 
O'er lands and seas — great as himself, nay, greater; 
Milton as little that in him he saw, 
As in a glass, what he himself should be, 
Destined so soon to fall on evil days 
And evil tongues — so soon, alas, to live 
In darkness, and with dangers compassed round 
And solitude." 

113 



In the Days of Milton 

But there is no other record of the facts 
than Milton's own in his "Areopagitica," — 
"There it was that I found and visited 
tliQ famous Galileo, grown old a pris- 
oner to the Inquisition, for thinking in 
astronomy otherwise than the Franciscan 
and Dominican licensers thought," and the 
famous references in "Paradise Lost" 
( 1-287) to tne shield of Satan hanging on 
his shoulders — "like the moon whose orb 
through optic glass the Tuscan artist views 
at evening, from the top of Fesole," and 
(v-262) "as when the glass of Galileo ob- 
serves imagined lands and regions in the 
moon." 

There are in Florence two localities 
where this visit may have taken place. 
Galileo's house in the city, and his Tower, 
on a hill six or seven hundred feet above 
the Arno river. Both have been preserved 
as memorials of the astronomer and con- 
tain relics of him, such as his microscope 
and astronomical instruments, a portrait 
and an autograph letter; and a visitor to 
114 



Visit to the Continent 

Florence may find many features of the lo- 
cality unchanged since Milton's visit, over 
two and a half centuries ago. 

A letter written from Florence by Mil- 
ton to an Italian friend who was writing a 
Tuscan grammar, is dated September 10, 
1638, and fixes the first certain date in his 
journey; so we know that his visit to 
Galileo was in the autumn and a few days 
after the birth of Louis XIV of France. 

Richard Garnett, in his "Life of Mil- 
ton," says: "The Italy of Milton's day, its 
superstition and its scepticism . . .its 
monks and bravos, its processions and its 
pantomimes . . . the opulence of its past 
and the impotence of its present, will be 
found depicted by sympathetic genius in the 
second volume of John Inglesant." 

Milton was greatly admired and praised 
by the Florentines, though the Englishman 
makes light of the work he exhibited to 
them, calling his compositions "some trifles 
which I had in memory composed at under 
twenty or thereabout; and other things 
ii5 



In the Days of Milton 

v/hich I had shifted, in scarcity of books 
and conveniences, to patch up among 
them." 



116 



CHAPTER VIII 

END OF HIS FOREIGN JOURNEY 

FROM Florence, by way of Siena, 
Milton continued his journey to 
Rome, arriving probably in the fall, 
about in October, 1638, when the danger 
from the Roman fever — that is, as modern 
science has proved, from the mosquitoes of 
the Campagna — was over. In Rome Mil- 
ton says that he "spent about two months in 
viewing the antiquities of the renowned 
city," and "experienced the most friendly 
attentions from Lucas Holsten and other 
learned and ingenious men." But we are 
able to expand this brief sentence by other 
evidence from his writings. We know that 
he was at a great concert given by Cardinal 
Barberini, nephew of the pope, who "him- 
self waiting at the doors, and seeking me 
117 



In the Days of Milton 

out in so great a crowd, nay, almost laying 
hold of me by the hand, admitted me within 
in a truly most honorable manner." A 
singer, Leonora Baroni, greatly impressed 
him, or at least gave him subjects for three 
Latin poems wherein she is extravagantly 
praised, but rather in the vein of poetry- 
making than in that of an admirer. Lucas 
Holsten was librarian of the Vatican, and 
we know of his attentions to the poet by a 
letter expressing gratitude. 

But Milton has little to say anywhere of 
the antiquities of the Imperial City; indeed, 
much that now makes the old city so ab- 
sorbingly interesting to modern travelers 
was in his day yet awaiting the w T ork of 
"that greatest archaeologist, the spade." 
The old forum was buried deep, and cows 
were pastured upon the ground that cov- 
ered the ancient market-place. 

It is difficult to explain Milton's silence 

on the subject of the memorials of ancient 

Rome except by the shortness of his stay 

there; one would certainly expect from so 

118 



End of the Foreign Journey 

great, so sensitive and so learned a poet 
some fruit of his Roman visit besides epi- 
grams to a concert-singer, to a second-rate 
poet, and a letter to an. attentive German 
librarian Even in his poetical works there 
is said by Garnett to be but one reference 
to "the venerable ruins and masterpieces 
. . . that have inspired so many immortal 
compositions." And that reference (Book 
iv, Paradise Regained, 31-85) is but a gen- 
eral vision of the grandeur of Rome under 
her emperors, hardly suggestive of any 
personal knowledge of the ancient city in 
his own times. He does not even mention 
the recent completion of St. Peter's, that 
wonder of architecture. 

From Rome Milton set out for Naples, 
and was accompanied in his journey by a 
certain "recluse," or hermit, to whom the 
poet gives credit for introducing him to a 
distinguished Italian, Giovanni Battista 
Manso. This gentleman was then nearly 
eighty, and had always been a patron of 
art and literature, and a friend to all who 
119 



In the Days of Milton 

had distinguished themselves during his 
time. He had befriended Tasso, who had 
enshrined his name in his poems; Tasso's 
successor, Marini, also enjoyed Manso's 
protection and friendship. In the literary 
societies of Naples, Manso was honored 
and popular, and he welcomed Milton cor- 
dially. Milton records that Manso acted 
as his guide, entertained him and visited the 
traveler at the inn where he lodged. 

All these attentions prove that there was 
something attractive in the young English 
tourist. Indeed, Manso tells Milton in a 
parting poem that the only change needed 
to make him "Angelic instead of Anglic" 
was in his creed, for Manso was a devout 
believer in the Roman Church and could re- 
gard Milton only as a heretic. Two pres- 
entation cups from Manso were carried 
away as keepsakes, and are described in 
Milton's Latin epitaph on his friend Dio- 
dati. 

But although Diodati was dead in Au- 
gust, 1638, Milton could not know of his 
120 



End of the Foreign Journey 

loss for some months, and no doubt was 
looking forward to telling his friend the 
incidents of his sojourn in Italy, when he 
should once more be at home again in 
England. 

It had been the traveler's intention to 
extend his journeying into Sicily and 
Greece, but he tells us that "the melancholy 
intelligence which I received of the civil 
commotions in England made me alter my 
purpose ; for I thought it base to be travel- 
ing for amusement abroad while my fellow- 
citizens were fighting for liberty at home." 

Undoubtedly the news that summoned 
him home was the story of Charles' ex- 
pedition into Scotland for the purpose of 
forcing the Scotch churches to accept the 
service-book, to acknowledge the rule of the 
bishops, to allow the king to control the 
vesting of the clergy. The Scotch had 
covenanted to resist to the end "to the ut- 
most of that power which God has put into 
our hands all the days of our life," and to 
defend their rights, Scottish veterans 
121 



In the Days of Milton 

trained in the service of Gustavus Adolphus 
of Sweden carne across the seas and were 
enrolled under General Leslie. "Dugald 
Dalgetty" in Scott's "Legend of Montrose" 
is a typical veteran of the sort, though he 
gave his allegiance to the royalists, like a 
true mercenary as he was. 

King Charles gathered 20,000 men at 
the city of York; but the Scotch eagerly 
accepted his challenge, seizing Edinburgh, 
Dunbarton, Stirling and Aberdeen, and 
preparing to march to the border. The 
two armies met only to negotiate, and King 
Charles decided that it was wise to yield 
something of his demands. He had only 
raw recruits to combat General Leslie's 
veterans, and not having dared to call an 
English Parliament together, he supported 
his soldiers out of voluntary gifts from his 
sympathizers. 

There was no fighting, and Charles 
ngned the Treaty of Berwick promising to 
leave all questions to an assembly and Par- 
liament — a treaty that was never kept. 
122 



End of the Foreign Journey 

Then his unpaid army melted away — "like 
boys let out of school." 

Such was the first war-cloud, slight, but 
presaging the great storm. 

Meanwhile, giving up his trip, Milton 
turned back toward Rome, though warned 
that the English Jesuits there had laid plots 
against him because, in disregard of the 
advice of Sir Henry Wotton, Milton had 
refused to keep "secret thoughts and an 
open countenance," never hesitating to ex- 
press his view on religious matters when 
questioned, though never being the first to 
begin a conversation on the subject. "I 
took no steps," he writes, "to conceal either 
my person or my character ; and for about 
the space of two months I again openly de- 
fended, as I had done before, the reformed 
religion in the very metropolis of popery." 

Again he stayed two months in Florence, 
being warmly welcomed, and then by way 
of Bologna and Ferrara, visited Venice. 
From Venice he shipped home the books he 
had bought abroad (which suggests that we 
123 



In the Days of Milton 

may picture him as loitering now and then 
in the book-shops of the cities he had vis- 
ited) , and may have learned of the failure 
of King Charles' campaign against Leslie 
for instead of hastening home by sea he 
goes north through Verona and Milan and 
along Lake Leman to Geneva. 

Here he held "daily conferences with 
John Diodati, the learned professor of the- 
ology," uncle of his friend Charles ; and this 
old professor may have told Milton of the 
death of the nephew. Leaving Geneva he 
retraced his route through France and ar- 
rived in England in July or August, 1639, 
having been absent about fifteen months. 
It is characteristic of the man that, in an- 
swer to certain libelous statements made 
against him in later life by his enemies, he 
thus concludes his own brief account of his 
foreign journey: 

"The mention of this city [Geneva] 

brings to my recollection the slandering 

More, and makes me again call the Deity 

to witness that in all the places in which 

124 



End of the Foreign Journey 

vice meets with so little discouragement, 
and is practised with so little shame, I never 
once deviated from the paths of integrity 
and virtue, and perpetually reflected that 
though my conduct might escape the notice 
of men, it could not elude the inspection of 
God." 

Either during the later days of his trip 
or upon returning to England Milton 
learned that he had lost his friend Diodati, 
whose burial is registered, together with 
that of his sister, in the parish of St. Anne, 
Blackfriars, London — both victims of some 
epidemic. The poet expressed his grief in 
a Latin lament, "Epitaphium Damonis" a 
poem that resembles u Lycidas" in form and 
motive, and yet breathes a personal sorrow 
greater than the author could have felt for 
Edward King. 

As Professor Masson says in his intro- 
duction to the poem, "It is purely the acci- 
dent of its being in Latin that has prevented 
it from being as well known as 'Lycidas,' 
and that has transferred to Edward King 
125 



In the Days of Milton 

the honor of being remembered and spoken 
of as the pre-eminent friend of Milton's 
youth and early manhood. Not the Irish- 
born Edward King, but the half-Italian 
Charles Diodati was Milton's dearest, most 
intimate, most peculiar friend." 

No one familiar with Milton's works 
need be told this. Diodati's name comes up 
repeatedly, and until his death put an end 
to the friendship, we can trace the course of 
Diodati's life in the references to him by 
his friend in the First and Fifth Elegies, in 
two of the familiar Letters and this superb 
Epitaph, while in regard to Edward King 
we have only "Lycidas" as part of a volume 
contributed to by other students of Cam- 
bridge. 

From these monuments of his friendship 
we read many facts that help us to round 
out the poet's own life; and this epitaph 
contains a few lines proving that at this 
time he thought of writing an epic upon the 
early history of Britain, and meant to write 
hereafter more exclusively in English that 
126 






End of the Foreign Journey 



he might, if neglected abroad, be better 
known at home. But Milton was dissatis- 
fied with the subject when he had studied 
deeply into it, and he says, "As to Arthur, 
more renowned in songs and romances than 
in true stories, who he was and whether any 
such reigned in Britain, has been doubted 
heretofore, and may again with good rea- 
son." We shall soon see him weighing 
other subjects for his pen, while his daily 
life is as unpoetic as possible. 

He did not return to the village home at 
Horton, where the young lawyer Christo- 
pher remained with his wife, but decided to 
find lodgings in London. He chose his 
home in what was then St. Bride's Church- 
yard, at the house of a tailor, a small place 
chosen because it was quiet, and not far 
from the neighborhood familiar to him in 
his boyhood. Here he undertook the edu- 
cation of his nephews — the Phillips boys. 
Their mother, a widow since 1631, had 
married a man named Agar, and so her 
sons by Phillips were taken in charge by 
127 



In the Days of Milton 

their uncle, and taught by him, the youngest 
being practically adopted. 

"This beginning soon grew into more than 
private tutoring, for finding the house too 
small, Milton moved to another in Alders- 
gate street, again selecting a house with a 
garden around it, and opened a regular 
school, where instruction was given on a 
plan of his own — one criticised most in- 
terestingly in Dr. Johnson's life of the poet. 

Milton's idea is explained in his letter 
on "Education" addressed to "Master 
Hartlib," wherein are set forth the plan of 
an ideal school for about one hundred and 
twenty scholars, with regulations for stud- 
ies, exercise, and diet. In general, Milton 
sees no reason why the reading of classic 
authors should not convey to pupils some of 
the principles of science and the arts. He 
says, incidentally, "And either now or be- 
fore this they may have easily learned at 
any odd hour the Italian tongue!" But it 
will hardly do to smile at Milton as a 
linguist, for he certainly acquired an un- 
128 



End of the Foreign Journey 

usual readiness in so many languages that 
one of his Florentine friends speaks of him 
as familiar with Spanish, French, Italian, 
Greek, and Latin, and to these must be 
added some knowledge of Hebrew, at least. 

In exercise the youth of this model school 
are to receive a military training, to make 
excursions for sightseeing on land and at 
sea, partly with a view of learning which of 
them had special aptitudes. This letter on 
education was dated 1 644, some four years 
after the return from Europe, and was no 
doubt the result of his experience as a 
teacher. 

Dr. Johnson finds amusement in Milton's 
resolution to hasten home and its outcome 
— the opening of a boys' school; but 
Browne in the Clarendon edition of Milton, 
contrasts the conduct of the poet with that 
of Evelyn, the diarist, who determined 
to absent himself from the ill-face of things 
at home ; and quotes De Quincey's opinion 
that Milton made a sacrifice of his pleasure- 
trip, but no promise that bound him to any 
129 



In the Days of Milton 

course of conduct. Later we shall see that 
there was no cowardice in Milton's decision 
to fight with goose-quill rather with sword 
or musket, but simply the choice of that 
weapon wherewith he considered he could 
render most effective service for liberty. 

About once a month, we are told, the 
schoolmaster would take a brief holiday 
with some young men of his acquaintance, 
"the chief of whom were Mr. Alphry and 
Mr. Miller, two gentlemen of Gray's Inn 
. beaux of those times, but nothing 
near so bad as those of nowadays," as his 
nephew Phillips wrote. 

On the 13th of April, 1640, assembled 
a Parliament, only to be dissolved in three 
weeks, having voiced the people's com- 
plaints and voted no supplies. Evelyn tells 
how he "went to London to see the solemn- 
ity of his Majesty's riding through the city 
in state to the Short Parliament ... a 
very glorious and magnificent sight, the 
king circled with his royal diadem, and the 
affections of his people." But this, the first 
130 



End of the Foreign Journey 

Parliament in eleven years, did nothing to 
show any affection to the king, leaving him 
still bankrupt. 

Then the Earl of Strafford, Thomas 
Wentworth, who had raised men and 
money in Ireland, came into England and, 
taking command of the royal army, ad- 
vanced against the Scots. They, August 
20, crossed into England, occupied New- 
castle, and sent to King Charles asking him 
to consider their grievances, summon a 
Parliament, and settle a permanent peace. 
Strafford's troops were a disorderly mob, 
and when the Scots made ready to attack 
York, where Charles was, he bought them 
off by paying their army during negotia- 
tions, and left English territory in their pos- 
session as a pledge of good faith. 

The English would not support the war, 
and, as Green says, "penniless, without an 
army, with a people all but in revolt," the 
king "was driven to summon again the 
Houses to Westminster." And thus came 
the Long Parliament, whose sitting began 
131 



In the Days of Milton 

November 3, 1640, "a day/' Evelyn writes, 
"never to be mentioned without a curse." 

During these months of political turmoil 
we learn from his own words that the poet 
had not yet determined to give up his liter- 
ary plans, but resumed his intermitted stud- 
ies, "cheerfully leaving the event of public 
affairs, first to God, and then to those to 
whom the people had committed that task." 
His home was near one of the four old 
gates in London wall, but in 16 17 King 
James' entry into London by Aldersgate 
had been commemorated by a new struc- 
ture decorated by effigies of the king and 
of the prophets Samuel and Jeremiah. 
Open fields were just beyond, and Howell 
says the district reminded him of an Italian 
city. Diodati's father and Milton's old 
teacher, Dr. Gill, lived not far away, which 
may have influenced the choice of this 
home. 

Either here or in the St. Bride residence 
— the locality of which is now that of part 
of the "Punch" office — Milton made up a 
132 



End of the Foreign Journey 

list of his projects for poetical works, nine- 
ty-nine, of which sixty-one are Scriptural, 
and four of these relating to "Paradise 
Lost." Among the historical subjects are 
the story of Macbeth and Alfred the 
Great. The thought of writing tragedies 
seems uppermost, but his purpose, whatever 
the theme, was to teach. 

All such dreams, however, were laid 
aside when war broke out, and signs multi- 
plied that the great storm was at hand. 
May 9th, 1640, a placard on the Royal 
Exchange called upon the people to assem- 
ble and plunder the palace of Laud, Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, and that night a 
riotous crowd led by the club-bearing ap- 
prentices made the attack, but were repulsed 
and the ringleaders executed. Later, an 
attack was made upon the house of the 
Spanish ambassador because English 
papists worshipped in his chapel; but this 
also was controlled by the lord mayor 
before violence was carried far. The army 
of the king, as it marched northward, 
133 



In the Days of Milton 

broke into churches, tore down chancel- 
rails, moved the communion-tables into the 
body of the church, and otherwise showed 
themselves in favor of the doctrines for 
which the Scotch army was ready to fight. 
With disaffected, untrained soldiers the 
king had no chance of success, and he was 
compelled to make terms with the Cove- 
nanters for lack of support at home. 

Among the first acts of the Long Parlia- 
ment was the impeachment of Strafford on 
the proposal of Pym, and his imprisonment 
in the Tower. Laud, also, was imprisoned, 
while others of the king's advisers took 
flight. The king himself dared not oppose 
Parliament lest they should refuse to vote 
money to pay the Scots, and thus to keep 
them at peace. Consequently the House of 
Commons controlled the kingdom. Straf- 
ford was executed, and one by one the 
powers of the crown were stripped from 
King Charles, and the personal government 
of the Stuarts came to an end. 



134 



CHAPTER IX 

THE WRITER OF POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS 
PAMPHLETS 

WE have seen Milton a student, a 
poet, and a traveler abroad, and 
must now for a while think of 
him as teacher of his two nephews and of 
certain other young pupils, the sons of his 
friends, in the school in his garden-house 
outside the walls of London, and far 
enough from Westminster and the King's 
palace to be not quite involved in the bub- 
bling and boiling political and religious 
eruption that had brought Archbishop 
Laud to the Tower and Strafford to the 
block. Both of these events were enough 
to show the temper of the King's subjects; 
for in the beginning of a revolution only 
could such men have been reached and pun- 
ished. 

135 



In the Days of Milton 

The histories of the time give us many 
pictures of the turbulent scenes in London. 
Thus the death of Strafford was hailed by 
joyful shoutings, bonfires, ringing of bells, 
and those who had come to the city to wit- 
ness the execution rode back crying aloud 
the good news to the towns through which 
they passed homeward. 

No doubt Milton followed all these hap- 
penings with the interest of a scholar and 
the emotions of a patriot, but he took no 
active part in any of the struggles between 
King and Parliament which made memora- 
ble the year 1641, and which gradually 
stripped the throne of all power. While 
the parliament was sending out commis- 
sioners to remove and deface all the images 
and ornaments in churches; providing that 
its sessions should be held every three years 
at least, and not dissolved without at least 
fifty days' sitting; trying and attainting 
Strafford and Laud; abolishing or regulat- 
ing the King's courts ; and seeking to settle 
religious differences — Milton was teaching 
136 



Political and Religious Pamphlets 

his pupils quietly in his little school, and 
taking no part in politics. 

It was only when the King's partisans 
issued pamphlets meant to control public 
opinion that Milton took part in the great 
strife. "I declined," he writes, "the toils 
and dangers of war for no reason but that 
I might, with much more effect and not less 
danger to myself, assist my countrymen in 
another way, and show a spirit neither de- 
jected by misfortune, nor more than justly 
apprehensive of calumny, or even of death. 
As from a child I had been devoted to the 
more liberal studies, and was always 
stronger in intellect than in body, declining 
the labors of the camp, in which any robust 
common soldier would easily have sur- 
passed me, I betook myself to those 
weapons with which I could do most execu- 
tion, that by bringing into action, not the 
inferior, but if I were wise, the better and 
more efficient part of my nature, I might 
do the utmost in my power for my country 
and her excellent cause." 
137 



In the Days of Milton 

In May, 1641, appeared the first of Mil- 
ton's political pamphlets — "Of Reforma- 
tion Touching Church Discipline in Eng- 
land"— a little book arguing against prel- 
acy as a foe to reformation and liberty, and 
citing authorities from the earliest times. 
Milton's object was "to help the Puritan 
ministers who were inferior to the bishops 
in learning." This pamphlet was privately 
printed, no doubt at his own cost, and put 
on sale at booksellers' shops to be picked up 
by any customer interested. There was no 
advertising, no attempt to make a market 
or derive a profit from its circulation. It 
resembled an editorial or an argumentative 
magazine article put forth to influence 
public opinion, and depended for its success 
entirely upon the interest it might excite. 

Two other pamphlets upon the question 
of church government were published in the 
same year, both answering similar works by 
Bishops Hall and Usher, learned advocates 
of the prelacy. None of these arguments 
need notice here since they give us no as- 
138 



Political and Religious Pamphlets 

sistance in comprehending the life of the 
time, except as indications of the method of 
controversy and bitterness of feeling be- 
tween the opponents. These appeared in 
the early summer, while King Charles was 
coquetting with first one party and then an- 
other, trying to obtain support against the 
fierce attacks of the Parliamentary leaders. 
They led Milton, however, to ally himself 
more directly with the church reformers, 
for he soon joined the Puritan ministers in 
answering the bishops' attacks upon the ac- 
tion of Parliament. Bishop Hall's first 
u Humble Remonstrance" had been an- 
swered by five Presbyterian divines, signing 
themselves by a name made up of their ini- 
tials — "Smectymnuus." The "ty" in this 
name stood for Thomas Young, formerly 
Milton's tutor. Then Archbishop Usher 
answered these men, and Hall published a 
defence of his Remonstrance. Milton came 
to the rescue of the five divines, in his 
"Animadversions Upon the Remonstrant's 
Defence," and when a son of Bishop Hall 

139 



In the Days of Milton 

responded by a pamphlet abusing Milton, 
the poet replied, closing the discussion. But 
this was not until 1642. 

In Milton's final "Confutation" we find 
the passage often quoted expressing the 
poet's good will toward Cambridge, and his 
assertion that the authorities of his college 
would have been glad to keep him among 
them. We also find Milton's account of 
his life in London at this time — early 
rising, the morning's exercise, reading of 
good authors, and generally a life of purity 
and high endeavor. But the pamphlet, 
though it contains some beautiful passages, 
has also much modern taste finds low and 
undignified — mere vulgar abuse, only to be 
excused, if at all, by the plea that men wrote 
so in those days, and must write in such 
terms to be forcible. 

This was published in July, just before 
King Charles made his hurried journey to 
Edinburgh for the sake of seeking allies 
among the Scotch lords, with John Hamp- 
den dogging his steps in order that the Par- 
140 



Political and Religious Pamphlets 

liament might know what their unreliable 
monarch was about. They could not trust 
him, for he had been in this same year de- 
tected in a plot to take Strafford from the 
Tower by force, and in other conspiracies as 
unworthy of the throne. 

It was these attempts to use force that 
made the Parliament insist upon having 
command of the military. There was no 
standing army, but each county had annual 
training seasons when the citizens were 
marshaled into the "trained bands" — such 
as "John Gilpin" captained. These militia- 
men were the backbone of England's fight- 
ing force, and upon their inclining to King 
or Parliament hung the whole settlement of 
the quarrel. These forces were under the 
command of the Lord Lieutenants of the 
counties, and Parliament was now demand- 
ing that the King should transfer the ap- 
pointment of these militia generals to the 
legislative body. "On which point," Car- 
lyle writes in his life of Cromwell, "as his 
Majesty would not yield a jot, his Parlia- 
141 



In the Days of Milton 

ment and he ultimately rent themselves 
asunder, and drew swords to decide it." 

In November, not long before the King's 
return from the north, there broke out an 
Irish rebellion that meant to the English 
an uprising of Romanists against Protest- 
ants. It was accompanied by the massacre 
of thousands — some say 40,000, others 
200,000 — by the most atrocious cruelties, 
and the horror excited in England was 
turned into hostility to King Charles be- 
cause it was given out that the rebels had 
acted under warrant from him. 

True or not, this was believed by many, 
and after the longest and stormiest debate 
ever known in Parliament, when only 
Hampden's tact avoided bloodshed among 
the sword-wearing members, it was decided 
to present to the King a Grand Remon- 
strance. This was on Monday, November 
22, and the next Thursday saw the King's 
return from Scotland, and his entertainment 
by the city of London. 

Parliament was no longer unanimous 
142, 



Political and Religious Pamphlets 

against the King, for many thought enough 
had been done to limit his power, and 
feared lest the reformers should go too far. 
To reawaken distrust, the Remonstrance 
was prepared, recounting the grievances 
against the royal party; and the King's par- 
tisans asserted that it was no more than a 
mischief-making political move. At all 
events, the move was successful, for in and 
out of Parliament quarrels arose, mobs were 
formed, and during the street-fighting arose 
the nicknames "Cavaliers" and "Round- 
heads." The King's party included most 
of the nobles, the clergy, the country gentle- 
men; while the merchants, citizens, and 
small farmers were for the Parliament. 

In the slang of the day, the "Cavaliers" 
y/ere soldiers of fortune, such as Scott's 
"Dugald Dalgetty," who had learned their 
trade in the religious wars on the Conti- 
nent; the "Roundheads" were the London 
apprentices with their close-cropped hair 
and round caps. As the mobs that swarmed 
about the streets were largely made up of 
143 



In the Days of Milton 

these two classes, the names soon came to 
distinguish the factions. 

Such were the mobs who, aroused by the 
cry of "Popery!" mobbed the bishops in 
the streets and at length frightened them 
from attending the sessions of the House of 
Lords. Then the bishops protested that 
the laws passed in their absence were ille- 
gal, and for this were impeached by Parlia- 
ment and sent to the Tower. The King 
thereupon decided to deliver a counter- 
stroke, and made the attempt to seize the 
"Five Members," taking with him to West- 
minster a large force of the "Cavaliers," 
only to find "the birds flown," and to drive 
all Parliament to take refuge among their 
partisans in the city of London "to be safe 
from armed violence." 

All these acts of violence on both sides 
were not performed without the gathering 
of mobs, sword cuts and cudgel-blows, out- 
cries, and threatenings ; though we have no 
hint to decide whether John Milton was 
present in any of the historic scenes. Such 
144 



Political and Religious Pamphlets 

was the London of 1641 and January, 
1642, until the departure of the King on 
the tenth from Whitehall Palace — aban- 
doning London as hopelessly hostile to his 
cause. The next day saw the triumphant 
re-entry of the Five Members, escorted by 
the armed citizens, "the trained bands of 
London and Southwark on foot and the 
watermen on the river." Dickens, in his 
"Child's History of England," gives an 
excellent impression of the scene. 

There was now no doubt that war was 
inevitable, and both sides prepared for it. 
King Charles's last concession was signing 
the bill excluding bishops from the House 
of Lords, and he absolutely refused to sign 
another bill that would have put the militia 
under the control of Parliament. Fearing 
that he might be seized, Charles left for the 
city of York, having already sent the Queen 
abroad from Dover to sell the crown jewels 
for money to pay his war expenses. 

Meanwhile nothing is heard from Mil- 
ton until the appearance, in January, 1642, 
145 



In the Days of Milton 

of the first pamphlet bearing his name — 
"The Reason of Church Government 
Urged Against Prelaty, by Mr. John Mil- 
ton." This is interesting especially because 
it sets forth the author's reasons for enter- 
ing the field of controversy — a field in 
which he says he feels his weakness, "hav- 
ing the use but of my left hand." The 
final pamphlet in the "Smectymnuus" debate 
appeared later than the one named above; 
but it has already been referred to in order 
that the whole subject might be kept better 
together. Henry Morley, excusing Mil- 
ton's adoption of the tone of his opponents, 
says: "Controversy then was simply a 
strong wrestle with the single desire in each 
wrestler to secure the fall of his opponent. 
So Milton wrestled, and gave many a rough 
hug with his intellectual arm; but he sought 
only the triumph of his cause by strife of 
mind with mind; his antagonist opposed to 
him argument rough as his own with coarse 
abuse." Surely the abuse was coarse enough 
on both sides, considering that the dispute 
146 



Political and Religious Pamphlets 

related to religious matters and was carried 
on by educated men. 

Two events of 1641 should be noted — 
the birth of a son to Milton's brother Chris- 
topher, in August, and the closing of all the 
theatres in London early in September. In 
the artistic world, a change in the style of 
portrait-painting may be dated from about 
this time, for 1641 was the year of the 
death of Van Dyck and also of the coming 
to London of Peter Lely, the first an expo- 
nent of dignified art, the other essentially a 
fashionable painter. 

The first six months of 1642 saw both 
sides preparing for the conflict, getting to- 
gether men and munitions. Both tried to 
seize the important arsenals and magazines 
— Hull, Portsmouth and the Tower of Lon- 
don being the chief prizes — and all being 
secured by the Parliament forces. Hull re- 
fused to admit King Charles, and then the 
royalist members withdrew from Parlia- 
ment and joined the King at York, partly 
with the purpose of dissuading him from 
147 



In the Days of Milton 

war. Thus there were two headquarters 
formed, and recruiting began. Charles re- 
ceived gifts from the nobility and the uni- 
versities, and the proceeds of the jewels 
sold abroad by his Queen; the Parliament 
opened a public subscription in London to 
which women gave even wedding-rings. 

At last King Charles advanced to Not- 
tingham and raised the royal standard and 
a red flag to declare war and invite ad- 
herents. This was on August 22, 1642, 
a "stormy and tempestuous day," for the 
standard was blown down; and three days 
later the royalists took Lincoln. Then the 
King fell back toward the northwest, where 
more of his partisans were, making his 
headquarters at Shrewsbury, and gaining 
many adherents, while Essex, the Parlia- 
mentary general, was gathering his forces 
at Northampton. Charles having moved 
westward, Essex went also west to Worces- 
ter, still barring the way to London; and 
when Charles marched southward, the two 
armies came first into collision at Edgehill, 
148 



Political and Religious Pamphlets 

though the first bloodshed was at Powick 
Bridge, where the King's nephew, Prince 
Rupert, had won a small cavalry skirmish 
near Worcester. 

Edgehill was fought not far from Strat- 
ford-on-Avon, on Sunday, October 23, and 
was the "Bull Run" of this civil war. The 
King had about 18,000 and Essex 15,000 
men, and the meeting was unexpected. The 
line of battle was formed, and King Charles 
rode along the lines in armor covered by a 
black velvet mantle. At three o'clock the 
Parliamentary artillery from the right flank 
began firing, and were answered, King 
Charles firing the first piece with his own 
hands. Charges of horsemen followed, and 
Prince Rupert routed those opposed to him, 
and a part of the Parliamentary force de- 
serted to the King. While Rupert was pil- 
laging baggage-wagons, the rest of the 
royalists were driven back and the royal 
standard captured. The army of Essex 
had won the field, but King Charles secured 
the road to London, and taking Banbury, 
149 



In the Days of Milton 

was able to continue his march toward the 
capital. 

The royal standard, it is said, was re- 
taken by a clever trick. One of the royalist 
captains put on an orange scarf (Essex's 
colors and the Parliament badge), and rid- 
ing into the enemy's lines demanded the 
flag from Essex's secretary, saying, "It 
were shame that so honorable a trophy 
should be borne by a penman." When it 
was handed over, the Cavalier galloped 
away with it, and was knighted for the ex- 
ploit. 

Another remarkable incident was the 
presence of Dr. William Harvey, the dis- 
coverer of the circulation of the blood, and 
the King's physician, who absent-mindedly 
sat down on the grass and read a book until 
the whistling bullets reminded him he was 
not in his study, whereupon he remembered 
he was in charge of the young princes, 
Charles and James, and withdrew them to 
a safe distance. The two boys were twelve 
and nine years of age. 
150 



Political and Religious Pamphlets 

It is believed that Rupert's success con- 
vinced Cromwell that he must have trained 
cavalrymen to resist the Cavaliers, for not 
long afterward he tells John Hampden that 
4 'they never would get on with a set of poor 
tapsters and town-apprentice people fight- 
ing against men of honor. To cope with 
men of honor, they must have men of re- 
ligion." 

And this conviction was the most im- 
portant result of the fight at Edgehill. 



151 



CHAPTER X 

IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE WAR 

IN reading of these battles we must re- 
member the difference between the 
equipment of soldiers then and now. 
Firearms were still bulky and clumsy, re- 
quiring a fork as a rest, and had little range 
or accuracy. They were fired by means of 
a slow match. Yet they were effective 
enough to have caused an abandonment of 
much of the armor meant for close fighting, 
only the back and breast-plates and an iron 
helm being retained by the soldiery. A 
long buff coat of leather and calf-leather 
boots were additional protection, the coats 
being dyed so as to give regiments a sort of 
uniform. 

Officers added shoulder-pieces, arm- 
pieces, and tassets upon their thighs, and 
152 



In Early Years of the War 

they, like the cavalrymen, wore feather 
plumes in their hats, and richly embroid- 
ered coats. 

To resist charges there were pikemen, 
carrying long poles headed with metal 
points, for the bayonet was not yet invent- 
ed, and the loading of the musket took so 
long that the musketeers needed some pro- 
tection between their volleys. The battle- 
line consisted often of eight or ten ranks, 
and after firing, the front rank retired to 
load, leaving the second to deliver the next 
volley. The firearms and cannon did not 
do much damage, the chief loss being suf- 
fered when the forces came to close quar- 
ters — or "push of pike," as it was called. 
Thus it was that the superior bravery of the 
Cavaliers was of overwhelming advantage 
until the less experienced Roundheads had 
become taught by adversity to fight with 
the same resolution. 

After Edgehill, King Charles captured 
the neighboring towns, Banbury, Abingdon 
and Henley, without resistance, and the 
153 



In the Days of Milton 

Royalist cavalry began to plunder the coun- 
try near London. 

Londoners were much troubled by the 
King's advance, and the House of Com- 
mons even petitioned the King for peace. 
He replied with his usual array of fine 
words, and made them an offer to talk over 
terms, and meanwhile advanced through a 
mist, and attacked a small garrison that 
were holdng Brentford for the Parliament, 
in order to control the road to London. 
Brentford was but a few miles from the 
very gates of the city, some six miles from 
Hyde Park, and hardly a dozen from Mil- 
ton's school for young gentlemen at Alders- 
gate. 

The King's forces were nearest on No- 
vember 12, 1642, and London began to 
prepare for an immediate attack. Houses 
were barred, chains put across the narrow 
streets to check cavalry, and barricades 
begun ; the city's forces were gathered, and 
speeches made. Two days after the Brent- 
ford skirmish 24,000 men were reviewed 
154 



In Early Years of the War 

on Turnham Green, between the Cavaliers 
and London. 

This display of force daunted even the 
headstrong Rupert, and the Royalists 
marched away to Oxford to go into winter 
quarters. 

During the dismay in London, Milton 
wrote a sonnet, originally entitled u On His 
Door, When the City Expected an As- 
sault," but afterward "When the Assault 
Was Intended to the City." One can hard- 
ly take it in earnest nor be quite satisfied to 
consider it humorous. The sonnet asks 
protection and promises fame to the enemy 
who guards the poet from harm, bidding 
him remember how Alexander of Macedon 
(Emathia) spared Pindar's house in 
Thebes, and how a song from the Electra 
of Euripides saved Athens from destruc- 
tion. Certainly the sonnet must have been 
written in a playful spirit, since Milton 
could hardly have been known to the Cava- 
liers except as the author of bitter political 
or religious pamphlets. The thought be- 
155 



In the Days of Milton 

hind the lines was a "conceit" in the old 
sense, not in the new. 

So for a time the clash of arms was 
stilled, not again to come so near Milton's 
home. That he was never indifferent to the 
troubles war brought upon the people may 
be argued from the record of a large sub- 
scription made by him for the relief of 
those who had been made homeless by the 
Irish rebellion ; no doubt he was as ready to 
aid those nearer home, though we have no 
record of him until about the middle of 
1643, an d must before passing into that 
year note a few happenings of 1642. 

To all England the war was of over- 
weening importance; yet to us there were 
other events of the year far more note- 
worthy. Of all, the most momentous was 
the birth of a little son to Harriet, wife of 
Isaac Newton, a farmer who had died a 
short time before the boy was born. This 
little fellow afterward became Sir Isaac 
Newton, and lived until the time of George 
I, dying at eighty-five years of age. Per- 

156 






In Early Years of the War 



haps we shall better realize that the times 
of the poet Milton are not far in the past 
if we consider how few lives will take us 
back to this birthday of Sir Isaac Newton, 
December 25, 1642 (O.S.). Newton lived 
till 1727, when Benjamin Franklin was 
just of age, twenty-one, and establishing a 
printing office in Philadelphia; Franklin 
died in 1790, when Wordsworth was 
twenty, and Wordsworth lived till 1850, 
when the poet Swinburne was a boy of thir- 
teen, and Swinburne still writes, being not 
yet seventy. Newton, Franklin, Words- 
worth, Swinburne — less than four men's 
lives take us back to that school-keeping of 
Milton's. 

In this same year when Newton was 
born, Galileo died. It was as if the great 
Englishman came to carry on the work of 
the Italian astronomer. Sir Thomas 
Browne's "Religio Medici" and Hobbes's 
u De Cive" and "Leviathan" were being 
written — all three works showing the specu- 
lative cast of mind so general at the time ; 
157 



In the Days of Milton 

and Jeremy Taylor, during the King's stay 
at Oxford, wrote "Episcopacy Asserted," 
showing how a good man and true could 
maintain the opposite side of the questions 
Milton discussed so strongly. Other events 
worth remembering are the death of Car- 
dinal Richelieu, and the discovery, toward 
the end of the year, by Tasman, the Dutch 
Captain, of u Van Diemen's Land," now 
Tasmania, nicknamed u The land of lots of 
time." But the discovery for many years 
remained only a discovery. 

An excellent history of the war describes 
the situation during the next few months as 
one of "desultory warfare," saying "towns, 
castles, houses, were fortified, garrisoned 
and besieged." Only where one party was 
in a great majority was there peace. Thus 
in the east, where the woolen industry flour- 
ished, the Roundheads were soon organized 
so completely by Colonel Cromwell that all 
signs of Royalist activity ended. Cromwell 
had soon come to the front. He was now 
forty-three, having been born nine years be- 

158 



In Early Years of the War 

fore Milton, and of far better social rank. 
He was cousin to John Hampden, and had 
lived the life of a country gentleman at 
Huntington, quietly tilling his lands (cer- 
tainly not a "brewer") and caring for his 
family. He was in sympathy with the 
Puritans, but cuts no figure in public affairs 
until he appears as a member of the third 
Parliament called by Charles in 1628. The 
session lasted a year, and Carlyle says that 
this Parliament was "most gentle, soft- 
spoken, cautious, reverential; and in sub- 
stance most resolute and valiant," since it 
spoke out boldly to the King and openly at- 
tacked his favorite, the Duke of Bucking- 
ham. 

Cromwell's first speech was in February, 
1628-9, when he referred to the preaching 
of "flat popery at Paul's Cross" and pro- 
tested vigorously; being ordered by Parlia- 
ment to bring his witness — Cromwell's old 
teacher at Huntingdon. Soon after there 
was the celebrated scene where the Speaker 
of the House was held down in his chair 
159 



In the Days of Milton 

while resolutions were passed condemning 
heresies and illegal taxation; and then the 
members fled for fear of the soldiery — and 
there was no more Parliament for eleven 
years, or until the Long Parliament of 
1640. Again to quote Carlyle, "A studious 
imagination may sufficiently construct 
Cromwell's equable life in those years. 
Diligent grass farming, mowing, milking, 
cattle-marketing .... prayer, religious 
reading and meditation ; household epochs, 
joys and cares: — we have a solid, substan- 
tial, inoffensive farmer of St. Ives hoping 
to walk with integrity and humble, devout 
diligence through this world." And as was 
Cromwell, so were the other country gentle- 
men who were in a few more years to rise 
in arms against their headstrong King. 

Cromwell was in the Long Parliament of 
1640, and he begins to attract attention for 
his "ordinary apparel" made by "an ill 
country tailor," his face "swollen and red- 
dish, his voice sharp and untuneable, and 
his eloquence full of fervor." Similar 
160 



In Early Years of the War 

stories are told with less authority, but they 
give us an idea of the force and uncouthness 
of the coming general. 

But we see little more of Oliver until 
swords have been drawn, except that he is 
on record as offering several hundreds of 
pounds to aid in the equipment of forces 
against the King. Then he raises two com- 
panies of volunteers, and in August, 1642, 
seizes the silver plate of the University of 
Cambridge, adding £20,000 to the Parlia- 
ment's resources. As Carlyle puts it, "the 
like was going on in all shires of England; 
wherever the Parliament had a zealous 
member it sent him down to his shire in 
those critical months to take what manage- 
ment he could." 

Next Cromwell is captain of a troop of 
horse, and takes part in the Edgehill battle, 
after which he is in the eastern counties near 
Cambridge looking sharply to the interests 
of the Roundhead party, and on the de- 
fensive against ravaging Royalists, at the 
head of some 12,000 Parliament volunteers 
161 



In the Days of Milton 

collected from five associated counties. He 
is now Colonel Cromwell, and holds fast 
seven counties for the cause he has under- 
taken, showing us how the Parliament set 
about the winning of the nation. 

While Cromwell was heart and soul en- 
gaged in the war, Milton was going 
a-courting. At Forest Hill, near Oxford, 
lived Richard Powell, who had for years 
been paying interest on a loan of £500 
made to him probably by the poet's father. 
In May, 1643, J onn Milton departed from 
London without telling his errand, and 
about a month later returned with Mary 
Powell, Richard's daughter, whom he had 
married while absent. She was seventeen, 
her husband thirty-four. She, like all her 
family, was a Royalist, and Milton had 
married in a region then in the hands of 
the King's troops, which indicates that he 
was not prominent enough to be considered 
an important enemy by the upholders of the 
King. 

The Powell family included eleven chil- 
162 



In Early Years of the War 

dren, she being the third, and the eldest 
daughter. It was a merry household, and 
one apparently well to do. With the bride 
came some of her friends to the Aldersgate 
house, and there was feasting for some days 
in entertainment of the visitors. But when 
the school-day routine was taken up, the 
young wife found it "very solitary" and 
gloomy. Milton's was a serious, preoccu- 
pied nature, and though a very few of his 
poems show that he had now and then had 
some romantic imaginings, he certainly 
knew nothing of womankind, and was not 
likely to understand that the most serious 
courtship should come after marriage. 

It is not strange, therefore, that the little 
Mistress Milton after a month's honey- 
moon longed for the "company, merriment 
and dancing" of her country home and 
begged to make a visit of a few months, 
promising to return about Michaelmas. 
Milton consented — not understanding that 
he ought to have gone with her! — and 
away she went in July, 1643, or earlier — 
163 



In the Days of Milton 

to be seen no more in London for several 
years. 

On Michaelmas, September 29th, she 
certainly had not returned; and it seems 
that before this Milton had written letters 
that remained unanswered, and at last sent 
messengers, who had been plainly told that 
his wife refused to come back; for the 
pamphlet on "Divorce" which the expe- 
rience drew from Milton is dated August 
1, and preceded Michaelmas unless written 
in 1644, which some older editors assert 
without sufficient evidence, such as is cited 
by those of later times. 

It has been said that the early publication 
of the "Doctrine of Divorce" shows hasty 
action and too quick judgment; but Milton 
was accustomed to speculate upon all ques- 
tions of law and liberty. It is hardly likely 
that he reached thirty-four without opinions 
on the subject of marriage, though he only 
set them forth when his own experience 
had enforced his convictions. Certainly, 
while he shocked his own age, he is nearer 

164 



In Early Years of the War 

the modern views upon the whole question 
than were the men of his time, though the 
subject can not be yet looked upon as set- 
tled in all civilized legal systems. But we 
have to do now with the views and hap- 
penings of his own time, and must remem- 
ber that Milton appealed only to "the in- 
fallible rules of Scripture" as his guide, 
saying in a later pamphlet on the subject: 
"For God, it seems, intended to prove me, 
whether I durst alone take up a rightful 
cause against a world of disesteem, and 
found I durst." 

We may contrast these brave words with 
Dr. Johnson's prejudiced comment: "Being 
one of those who could easily find argu- 
ments to justify inclination he published (in 
1644) " the pamphlet on divorce. But Dr. 
Johnson had not with Milton that sym- 
pathy which is the first qualification for the 
biographer. Boswell says: "That a man 
who venerated the Church and Monarchy 
as Johnson did should speak with a just 
abhorrence of Milton as a politician, or, 

165 



In the Days of Milton 

rather, as a daring foe to good polity, was 
surely to be expected," but he points out 
how warmly Johnson appreciates the ex- 
cellence of Milton's poetry. 

Among the disasters resulting from the 
inaction of Essex during this time was the 
fatal wounding of John Hampden in a 
skirmish. He died on June 24, 1643, anc ^ 
his death was followed by a number of de- 
feats in the north and west of England, 
where ten towns were taken by the Cava- 
liers before the autumn, Bristol, then sec- 
ond in size in the kingdom, being captured 
by Prince Rupert and given over to plun- 
der. 

The Parliament voted to seek terms, and 
were only prevented by a great mob of 
citizens who came to protest, led by the 
mayor and councilors. Another mob came 
two days later, five thousand women de- 
manding peace, and were only dispersed by 
a charge of cavalry, seven or eight women 
being killed. 

The war during 1643 and 1644 na d been 
166 



In "Early Years of the War 

a struggle to take and to protect London. 
. King Charles had three main bodies in the 
field. He was northward of the capital; 
his general, Hopton, was in Cornwall, west- 
ward, and the Earl of Newcastle was also 
in the north, in Yorkshire. Charles hoped 
to combine in an attack all three armies, 
Hopton and Newcastle being assigned to 
hold both banks of the Thames below Lon- 
don, while the King made his assault. The 
supplies of London came by the Thames, 
and the river being controlled, the city must 
soon yield. 

So desperate was the Roundhead cause 
that Charles determined to march on Lon- 
don, knowing that Essex had lost so many 
men by sickness and desertion that he could 
offer no effective resistance. 

But it was first necessary to conquer the 
Roundheads in the north and west, so that 
the King's armies might be free to march 
elsewhere. Therefore King Charles de- 
cided first to besiege Gloucester — the only 
important post still holding out for the Par- 
167 



In the Days of Milton 

liament in the west — and then return to the 
conquest of London. 

"Much hung," say the historians, "on 
the resolution of this garrison of 1,500 men 
. . . . If they yielded Charles would 
turn at once upon the disheartened and de- 
fenceless capital. If they resisted, Parlia- 
ment would obtain a breathing time in 
which to recruit its forces." 

They held out, even the women and chil- 
dren working on the forts, and toward the 
end of August came Essex with 14,000 
men, including some of the London trained 
bands, saving the town. Then both armies 
moved toward the capital, and King 
Charles succeeded in seizing the town of 
Newbury, barring the road to London, and 
being between the Parliamentarians and 
their supplies. 

Thus Gloucester in the west, and Hull 
in the north, had held out so long that 
they had kept Newcastle from marching 
southward to the King's aid. 

After failing to take Gloucester, Charles 
168 



In Early Years of the War 

hurried to Newbury, putting his army be- 
tween Essex and London. Then Essex was 
forced to fight his way through or abandon 
London; besides, the army of Essex were 
in the open fields and could not remain cut 
off from supplies. 

This led to the first battle of Newbury, 
September 20, 1643. 

The Cavaliers had the best position, and 
despising their enemy, insisted upon charg- 
ing, some of the officers flinging off their 
armor in bravado. But the hedges broke 
up the cavalry, and Essex closing up his 
London train-bands advanced, driving the 
King's infantry before them. 

After six hours' desperate fighting, the 
stubborn bravery of the Londoners won the 
field, and the Royalists retired to Newbury, 
leaving the road open to the capital. 

At nightfall the battle had ended, Essex 
holding the hill where the Cavaliers had 
been, and in the morning he was able to 
pass Newbury and take the roads to Read- 
ing and London, not much troubled by at- 
169 



In the Days of Milton 

tacks from Prince Rupert's cavalry in the 
rear. 

The Cavaliers lost many officers that 
day, including Falkland, who was respected 
by both sides, and the Londoners had 
proved their valor. 

Reading had been taken by the Parlia- 
mentary forces in the previous fall, and 
now it was permanently in their hands. 

Their first capture of Reading had di- 
rectly affected Milton's life, for to that 
town a year or two before had gone John 
Milton, the elder, and Christopher — both 
Royalists — from Horton. And by the 
coming of the Roundhead army they had 
been driven out, and had gone to live with 
the poet, some few months before the bat- 
tle of Newbury. 



170 



CHAPTER XI 



milton's days of teaching 



WITHOUT the slightest warrant 
in fact, many biographers of 
Milton have tried to show how 
dull a place his house must have been for 
the lively little Cavalier bride, Mary 
Powell, and have excused her desertion of 
her husband on the ground that she found 
the Milton household very different from 
her own lively home. They represent Mil- 
ton as cold and repellent, having in mind 
his scholarly prose and forgetting his 
poetry. 

Macaulay, however, says: "Neither 
Theocritus nor Ariosto had a finer or more 
healthful sense of the pleasantness of ex- 
ternal objects or loved better to luxuriate 
amidst sunbeams and flowers, the songs of 
nightingales, the peace of summer fruits, 
171 



In the Days of Milton 

and the coolness of shady fountains. His 
conception of love unites all the voluptuous- 
ness of the oriental harem and all the gal- 
lantry of the chivalric tournament with all 
the pure and quiet affection of an English 
fireside." 

If we are to judge the man from his 
writings, and on this question of his mar- 
riage we have no other guide, it must be 
admitted that there is no reason for regard- 
ing Milton as a neglectful husband or an 
unloving man. That in his wife's desertion 
of him he should compose a treatise on di- 
vorce was natural to the times and to the 
thoughtful nature of the man. It was a 
time for questioning and debate on all ques- 
tions in which the church was involved, and 
of these marriage was one of the most 
prominent. There was the more reason for 
his pamphlet in the meeting of the Assem- 
bly of Divines at Westminster, a body of 
the Presbyterian clergy called together to 
settle church government and discipline for 
the kingdom. 

172 



Days of Teaching 

After the departure of Mistress Milton, 
the routine of household and school went 
on as before until the coming of Milton's 
father to live with him. 

Though the battle of Newbury had 
saved London, the King's cause was still so 
strong that the Parliamentary leaders laid 
aside their differences, and resolved to call 
upon the Scotch army to aid them, though 
this required the acceptance of Presby- 
terianism. It was not long after the battle 
that both houses of Parliament swore to 
a solemn league and covenant with Scot- 
land, to reform the religion of Eng- 
land "according to the example of the 
best reformed churches, and according to 
the Word of God," the last clause being 
added by Sir Henry Vane; and Scotland 
prepared an army to help against the King. 

Meanwhile Newcastle's siege of Hull 
went on until an army under the Earl of 
Manchester and Oliver Cromwell arrived 
from the Five Counties southward, and in 
a half-hour's battle near Winceby — where 

173 



In the Days of Milton 

Cromwell was unhorsed and almost slain, 
but remounted a trooper's horse — put the 
Royalists to flight and pursued them five 
miles through marshy ground. Next day 
the siege of Hull was abandoned, October 
12, 1643. 

These two battle:; were especially im- 
portant as showing that the Parliamentary 
forces, whether horse or foot, need not fear 
to encounter equal numbers of the enemy, 
and as proving that Cromwell's psalm- 
singing troopers were most excellent caval- 
rymen. But though these greater fights 
must be the ones described by historians at 
most length, because of their importance on 
the general issue, there were minor engage- 
ments taking place throughout the land. 
As an example of these the sieges of Basing 
House, which lasted from August, 1643, 
to October, 1645, should be known through 
the pages of contemporary writers in order 
that one may appreciate the obstinacy and 
bitterness with which the great struggle was 
carried on. 

174 



Days of Teaching 

About the time that Essex retired toward 
London, and King Charles toward Oxford, 
Milton was sending messages to beg his 
wife to return, and only desisted when told 
plainly that he need not expect her. It 
may be, as it is asserted, that her family 
believed the royal cause was sure to 
triumph, and wished to separate her from 
one identified with the Roundheads. 

Certainly there were many discourage- 
ments for the Parliament, in spite of the 
failure of the King's general plan for talcing 
London. The battles had seemed to show 
that the Cavaliers were nearly invincible; 
Bristol had been taken and plundered by 
Prince Rupert, and it was in importance 
the second city of the kingdom; John 
Hampden, considered the most promising 
leader of the Parliamentary forces, had 
been killed in a skirmish; Essex, the Par- 
liament's general-in-chief, seemed to lack 
energy to fo T low no his successes; and the 
Royalists could claim that the year's cam- 
paign had at least cost them no great losses, 
175 



In the Days of Milton 

even if they had scored no marked advance 
— but they failed to reflect that they were 
teaching their enemy to beat them. 

During the next half year there was little 
to change the general situation, but much 
to injure the cause of the King in the minds 
of his subjects. The Cavaliers and Round- 
heads alike were becoming embittered by 
the war, and there were cruelties to prison- 
ers on both sides. As animosity increased, 
chances of peace became lessened, and the 
Royalists were sure to lose more adherents 
as the war went on, for they were fighting 
the cause of the privileged few against the 
many, and every day would make this 
clearer. 

"London, " says a historian, "was quite 
changed from the time when a gay court 
was held at Whitehall, when Laud lived at 
Lambeth, when Cavaliers daily visited the 
artillery gardens, when crowds frequented 
the theatres. The grass was already grow- 
ing in the courts of Whitehall, Lambeth 
Palace was deserted and was soon to be 
176 



Days of Teaching, 

used as a prison. In the artillery-gardens, 
once so gay, grave citizens now learned the 
use of the pike and the musket; the theatres 
were all closed." In April, 1644, tne °ld 
Globe Theatre, the home of Shakespeare's 
dramas, was pulled down to make room for 
tenements. 

The Puritans were in full control. They 
were destroying images and ornaments, and 
burning the "relics of Catholic superstition" 
— and showing no discretion in the process. 
Sundays were strictly kept, gambling and 
drunkenness had ceased, openly at least, 
and street noises were replaced by the sound 
of praying or psalm-singing from the ser- 
vices held in the houses. Even the crying 
of wares on Sunday was forbidden, and the 
"Book of Sports" had been publicly burned. 
News of victories or reverses came in print- 
ed sheets that were widely circulated, and 
were followed by solemn fasts. 

John Milton, in his home at Aldersgate, 
seems to have been busy with his teaching 
and writing. It was during this time that 
177 



In the Days of Milton 

he wrote his essay on "Education/' already 
spoken of; and a few other minor pieces 
may have been written during the year, 
though the only work of importance that 
appeared was his article on "Divorce," in a 
signed edition. Two sonnets, the one be- 
ginning "Lady, that in the prime of 
earliest youth," and that "To the Lady 
Margaret Ley," show that he was not en- 
tirely without feminine society. The sub- 
ject of the first is not known. Lady Mar- 
garet was the wife of a Captain Hobson, 
and lived in London. Milton's nephew 
Phillips says, "He made it his chief diver- 
sion now and then of an evening to visit the 
Lady Margaret Ley," and describes her as 
a woman of wit and ingenuity, and her hus- 
band as an accomplished gentleman. Mil- 
ton's compliment to her is certainly charm- 
ing, and, simple though the subject may be, 
the 'sonnet does not seem unworthy of its 
fellows — which Macaulay describes as 
"simple but majestic records of the feelings 
of the poet." 

i 7 8 



Days of Teaching 

In the middle of 1644 comes the battle 
of Marston Moor, when, after several 
minor engagements near Oxford, the Par- 
liament's army was attacked by Prince Ru- 
pert and forced to accept battle near the 
city of York. There were more than 20,- 
000 on each side, the largest armies that 
had yet met. Cannonading began, and the 
Parliament men sang psalms, expecting Ru- 
pert to open the fight. But it grew late 
without his moving, and at length about 
seven o'clock (still light in that latitude and 
season) the Roundheads were ordered for- 
ward, Cromwell being opposite Prince Ru- 
pert. 

For the first time the "invincible" Cava- 
lier horsemen met Cromwell's "Ironsides," 
and after a brief struggle the King's men 
were routed, the whole right wing giving 
way. The precise opposite took place on 
the other end of the line, the Parliament 
soldiers being driven back. But Cromwell 
stopped after a short pursuit and, turning 
back upon the Royalists, who supposed the 
179 



In the Days of Milton 

battle won, put them to rout so effectually 
that the cause of the King was lost in the 
northern counties. 

But this great success was to be followed 
by almost as great a failure, for Essex had 
marched westward into Cornwall, where 
he had been surrounded and his army cap- 
tured. Both these battles brought disgrace 
to the Presbyterian element and honor to 
the Independents, of whom Cromwell was 
looked upon as leader. The second battle 
of Newbury, October 27, 1644, where the 
Earl of Manchester was in command, also 
had the same effect, for Cromwell went be- 
fore the House of Commons to complain 
that Manchester prosecuted the war feebly, 
and was to blame that the King escaped 
capture. To sum up the war for the year, 
it may be said to have shown that the only 
hope for a lasting peace was in defeating 
the King rather than in trying to make 
treaties with him, and that Cromwell and 
Fairfax were the generals to whom Eng- 
land must look for decisive results. 
180 



Days of Teachin 



or 



Meanwhile Milton was fighting the same 
battle as Cromwell, the battle for liberty of 
action unhampered by those who feared to 
go too far. The man of letters had been 
attacked from the pulpit and by pam- 
phleteers because of his views on divorce; 
and as Cromwell went before Parliament 
to justify himself, so had Milton done a 
few months before, being summoned by 
the Stationers' Company for issuing his un- 
licensed writings on Divorce. In both cases 
no action was taken by Parliament because 
the Independents were growing so rapidly 
in favor with the public. 

But in each case the bringing up of the 
question had far-reaching consequences, for 
two great men, Milton and Cromwell, were 
aroused to action. 

Milton, though he could in his own day 
score no victory greater than to escape con- 
demnation for ignoring the laws for licens- 
ing his publications, took his pen in hand 
to do battle for the great cause of a free 
press for all time. About the middle of 
181 



In the Days of Milton 

1644 a new master of the Stationers' Com- 
pany showed himself to be zealous by at- 
tempting to call Milton to account for the 
unlicensed publication of the Divorce tracts, 
contrary to an ordinance of June, 1643. 
The case was referred to a committee, with 
the usual result of oblivion. But Milton, 
apostle of liberty in the church, in the 
state, and in the home, saw an opportunity 
to strike a blow for liberty of speech. 

On November 24, 1644, came out an- 
other unlicensed pamphlet, the famous 
"Areopagitica : a Speech for the Liberty of 
Unlicensed Printing." 

The very name of this pamphlet was a 
reminder to Parliament of the old Athenian 
Court on the Mount of Ares, where the 
God of Battle was made to stand trial, and 
Milton reminds them also that one able 
citizen of Athens was able by a letter to 
make her legislators amend their form of 
government. But in order to show why 
this argument is even to-day held to be a 
treasure of English literature and palla- 
182 



Days of Teaching 

dium of civil liberty, let us quote from Mr. 
C. E. Vaughan's able essay that accom- 
panies the "Areopagitica" in the Temple 
Classics. Milton, he says, argues — 

"To see God through the world of truth and 
beauty that he has made, to search the world without 
ceasing for the gradual unfolding of his purpose, 
that is the whole duty of man; and with less than 
the whole he ought not to be content." 

And this was the poet's creed. This it was 
that inspired all his controversial writings. 
Hence, says Mr. Vaughan, 

"The Areopogitica is an imperishable monument 
to the nobility of Milton's personal creed. It is an 
uncompromising plea for the rights of reason and of 
progress. But it is no less memorable because it 
blends the intellectual keenness of the Renaissance 
with the religious ardor of the Reformers and the 
Puritans, and so interprets the whole spiritual life of 
the age that begins with Tamburlaine and the Faerie 
Queene, and ends with Paradise Lost and Samson 
Agonistes." 

Cromwell's appearance before the House 
was soon followed by the celebrated "Self- 
183 



In the Days of Milton 

Denying Ordinance" that ousted the luke- 
warm generals, putting Fairfax, Cromwell 
and Skippon in command. Then it was 
resolved to remodel the army, which was 
reduced in number, put upon a business- 
like pay-system, and thoroughly disciplined 
after Cromwell's methods. 

And even the briefest chronicle of the 
times must not omit to mention the execu- 
tion of Archbishop Laud, in January, 1645, 
almost the last act of Parliament in which 
Presbyterians and Independents found it 
possible to agree. 

During the early part of 1645, Milton 
brought out stronger and better supported 
arguments on the divorce question, and is 
said to have contemplated marriage with a 
Miss Davis, "a very handsome and witty 
gentlewoman." But meanwhile came the 
battle of Naseby, June 14, and the repeti- 
tion of the tactics of Marston Moor. 
Again Cromwell drove half the King's men 
before him, returning to rout the other vic- 
torious half, and again part of the Cavaliers 
184 



Days of Teaching 

carried their successful charge too far and 
left their comrades to be defeated. Five 
thousand Royalist prisoners were taken, 
and all their artillery and baggage — includ- 
ing the King's private letters, which 
brought to light all his insincerity and 
double dealing. This was virtually the end 
of the Cavaliers' cause, and after a few 
more struggles and some successes by Mont- 
rose in Scotland, the whole Royalist defence 
collapsed, and Charles surrendered himself 
to the Scotch army, by whom he was con- 
veyed to Newcastle. 

Before the final disaster, and either be- 
cause of the failing fortunes of the King 
or because of Milton's open courtship of 
another, Mary Powell had decided to re- 
turn to her husband. One day while the 
poet was visiting "a kinsman named Black- 
borough," Mary Powell came before him 
and fell on her knees, begging forgiveness. 

This scene is compared by Milton's biog- 
raphers to Dalila's visit to Samson in "Sam- 
son Agonistes," and to Eve's begging for- 

185 



In the Days of Milton 

giveness of Adam in Book X. of "Paradise 
Lost"; but except that in all three cases a 
wife is begging forgiveness, there is no real 
parallel among them, nor any reason for 
thinking Milton had his own experience in 
mind in writing either passage. 

At all events, the wife was reconciled, 
and about September, 1645, went to her 
husband, who had then removed to a new 
home that is known as the Barbican House, 
a large dwelling, for not only did his wife 
come to him, but brought with her a num- 
ber of her family to share the hospitality of 
the Puritan home. Where this house stood 
is now no trace of it, but Professor Masson, 
the poet's biographer, saw it, describing it 
as "a commodious enough house in the old 
fashion." The windows were of thick glass 
set in a lozenged frame of lead, also in the 
old fashion. The building was destroyed 
in 1864 to make place for a railway or its 
office. The name Barbican, still retained 
by the street in London, came from the 
tower that long ago stood here just outside 
186 



Days of Teaching 

the walls of the city, and in Milton's time 
the site was suburban, with fields not too 
far away to please a poet's eye. 

During the last few months of this year, 
1645, tne Parliamentary forces were busy 
retaking Bristol and other strongholds 
where Royalists still held out, among others 
Basing House, which finally was stormed 
by Cromwell and entirely destroyed. 

Two events of this time that interested 
Milton are the death of Grotius, who< had 
received him so kindly in Paris, and that 
of Manso, his hospitable Italian friend. Of 
the latter, especially, Milton must have 
been reminded when he was preparing the 
first edition of his poems for publication. 
This was done at the earnest request of the 
publisher, Humphrey Moseley, who won 
honor for himself by urging that the poems 
should be collected. "Let the event guide 
itself which way it will," said he, "I shall 
deserve of the age by bringing forth into 
the light as true a birth as the Muses have 
brought forth since our famous Spenser 

187 



In the Days of Milton 

wrote." Here is the true spirit of publish- 
ing, without which the calling loses all its 
claim to rank above any money-making 
trade. But the small 200-page octavo did 
not appear until January 2, 1646 (N.S.), 
and consequently its appearance should be- 
long among the events of that year. 



188 




ruvde im/ sixovoi 



'10V-.C-- £-KTV7TOJI0U 'SK ' efflVVOVT'E 



The absurd " portrait " published in the first edition 

of Milton's poems, and the joking inscription in 

Greek written by the poet* 



CHAPTER XII 

TO THE END OF THE CIVIL WAR 

1"^HE edition of Milton's poems was a 
small octavo of over two hundred 
pages, eighty-eight of which were 
the Latin verses with a separate title-page. 
All his known poems were included except 
that "On a Fair Infant" and the "Vacation 
Exercise," and the publisher wrote a pref- 
ace — really an advertisement. There was 
an ugly portrait prefixed, and Milton gave 
the engraver certain Greek lines to put be- 
low. Apparently the artist knew no Greek, 
for, translated, the lines were these : 

"Some prentice hand this effigy did trace!" 
You'd cry at once, seeing my living face : 
My friends, you do not know it's I at all — 
Laugh at the clumsy artist's blundering scrawl ! 
189 



In the Days of Milton 

This practical joke played on the en- 
graver ought to convince any reader that 
Milton was not the dry-as-dust, priggish 
scholar many ignorantly believe him, but 
that he enjoyed a bit of humor thoroughly. 

The title-page says: "The Songs were 
set in Musick by Mr. Henry Lawes, gentle- 
man of the King's Chappel, and one of his 
Majesties private Musick," showing that 
Lawes's friendship with Milton still lasted 
in spite of the "unpleasantness" between 
Royalists and Roundheads, and also that 
the composer's name was believed to have 
weight with the buyers. The exciting public 
events that followed undoubtedly prevented 
any very great demand for works of purely 
literary value, for there was no other issue 
of this volume for nearly thirty years. 

During the last half of 1645, King 
Charles had been trying through the Duke 
of Ormonde to make such terms with the 
Irish as would bring him an army of 10,000 
men, and in Scotland the Marquis of 
Montrose had brought his Highlanders 
190 



To End of the Civil War 

into the field, while the followers of Argyle 
were in England. The Irish and Scotch 
were considered by many of the English as 
savage marauders, and their employment 
embittered the King's enemies still further, 
and lessened the chances of any reconcilia- 
tion. In fact, after the battle of Naseby 
all minor disputes or differences of opinion 
began to be put aside, and men took sides 
in what Green describes as "the struggle 
between political tradition and political 
progress, religious conformity and religious 
freedom." It was this that made it pos- 
sible for King Charles and his adherents to 
influence events even after all uprisings in 
his favor had been put down. Though 
Montrose was defeated at Philiphaugh, 
and the English Royalists overcome by 
Fairfax and Cromwell, until only a few 
fortified castles were still holding out, King 
Charles still hoped that he might make 
good terms. 

The Scotch army and the Presbyterians 
in Parliament were not in sympathy with 
191 



In the Days of Milton 

the Independents, and Charles intrigued 
with all parties to gain time, promising 
toleration to one and religious uniformity 
to the other side; hence, when his armies 
were overcome, he surrendered to the Scots, 
hoping they would support him because of 
his blood and because they had been dis- 
appointed that the terms of the Covenant 
were not enforced in England. 

On May 5, 1646, Charles rode into the 
Scotch camp, and was taken to the city of 
Newcastle; and on June 20th his old strong- 
hold, Oxford, surrendered, bringing ruin 
to the Powell family, some of whom were 
then living with Milton in the Barbican 
house. Their estate at Forest Hill, four 
miles out of town, was taken possession of 
by a friend under kindly pretence of being 
their creditor, but their mansion was occu- 
pied by Roundheads and their movables 
sold. Apparently this sent all the Powells 
into London for refuge, where they were 
hospitably received, though Milton had no 
great fondness for their company. Gar- 
192 



To End of the Civil War 

nett quotes from Milton's letter to his 
friend Dati an apparent reference to the 
Powells as "the persons who sit daily in 
my company, weary me — nay, by Heaven 
— almost plague me to death whenever 
they are jointly in the humor for it." One 
may guess that table-talk on politics, where- 
in John Milton held his own against all the 
fugitive Royalists, may explain this out- 
burst, for few things are more wearisome 
to a wise man than being baited to argue 
daily against unreasoning prejudices and 
fixed sentiments. 

On July 29, 1646, Mrs. Milton bore a 
daughter, who was baptized Anne, after 
Mrs. Powell. Though welcomed, no 
doubt, the presence of an infant could not 
have made the household better adapted to 
the continuance of Milton's literary labors, 
and it is not strange that there is not much 
writing to credit to this year. He may 
have written the sonnets referring to the 
"Detraction Which Followed on My Writ- 
ing Certain Treatises," and the one "On 

193 



In the Days of Milton 

the New Forcers of Conscience." All are 
bitterly abusive and sarcastic, and contain 
lines often quoted: "New Presbyter is but 
old Priest writ large," "License they mean, 
when they cry Liberty' 7 and "That would 
have made Quintilian stare and gasp" are 
phrases still current. 

Another sonnet, that to Henry Lawes, 
ranks Milton with those poets who believe 
English verse to be regulated by "just note 
and accent" rather than by the long and 
short syllables of classic scansion ; this piece 
of verse first appeared in 1648, but the 
original draft, preserved at Cambridge, is 
dated February 9, 1645 (N.S., 1646). 

During 1 646 was published Dr. Thomas 
Browne's "Vulgar Errors" — a proof that 
men of science, even in those distracting 
times found time for learning; the same 
author's "Religio Medici," published two 
years before, had made him celebrated. 
So far as the war was concerned he "was 
as indifferent as if he had belonged in an- 
other planet"; but he is comparable with 
194 



To End of the Civil War 

Milton for "richness of imagery and ma- 
jestic pomp of diction," and is one of the 
literary figures of the age, proving that the 
style of even so independent a writer and 
thinker was due somewhat to the influence 
surrounding him — the metaphysical dis- 
cussions, and the spread of learning. 

The air was full of speculations; John 
Morley, in his "Life of Cromwell," quotes 
a saying that hardly a day passed without 
the brewing or broaching of a new opinion. 
— "If any man have lost his religion, let 
him repair to London, and I'll warrant him 
he shall find it," says one satirist of 1646. 
"I had almost said, too, that if any man has 
a religion, let him come but hither now, and 
he shall go near to lose it." But the West- 
minster Assembly were in control, and in 
the autumn abolished episcopacy and or- 
dered church lands sold for the public use. 
Still, the Independents were strong in the 
sword of Cromwell and the pen of Milton, 
and the New Model Army, originally made 
up of the ablest men among the Round- 
195 



In the Days of Milton 

heads, and increased by those whom cer- 
tainty of pay had attracted at a time when 
civil employments were few, was the most 
united party then in the kingdom, and the 
surest to prevail. 

We need not set out the negotiations with 
King Charles. It is enough to know that 
Charles would not establish Presbyterian- 
ism permanently, and that Parliament se- 
cured the royal prisoner from the Scots, 
paying £400,000 toward the expenses of 
the army, whereupon the Scotch, in Janu- 
ary, 1647, withdrew from England, to be 
taunted for years afterward by the popular 
gibe: 

"Traitor Scot ! 
Sold his King for a groat !" 

in which we must pronounce the name, 
"Scote" in order to preserve the rhyme. 
But in preserving the rhyme, let us not be 
unjust to the Scotch. They could hardly do 
otherwise than surrender the King to the 
English Parliament. Their work in Eng- 
land was done ; they could not take Charles 
196 



To End of the Civil War 

to Edinburgh unless he swore to the Cove- 
nant, and they could not remain away from 
home. The Parliament was the only au- 
thority in England likely to favor Charles, 
and the money had nothing to do with the 
case in any way. 

A few events of 1646 may be noted 
briefly that we may not forget the world 
outside of the civil war. In this year Leib- 
nitz was born, and George Fox founded the 
denomination of Friends — the Quakers. 
Across the Atlantic there had been Indian 
troubles in Virginia, and between the 
French and the Five Nations; Maryland, 
after internal disorders, reinstated Lord 
Baltimore; the Massachusetts General 
Court repudiated the authority of the Eng- 
lish Parliament, and John Eliot began his 
missions to the Indians. The Roundheads 
and Royalists were at loggerheads even in 
the colonies, but no long continued outbreak 
took place. 

The civil war was at an end for the time, 
and so long as the English army was domi- 
197 



In the Days of Milton 

nant Milton had no reason to fear persecu- 
tion for his opinions on religion, marriage 
or freedom of speech. 

By order of Parliament Charles was sent 
to Holmby, in Northamptonshire, where he 
remained till June. London wanted peace, 
Parliament was Presbyterian, the army In- 
dependent, each distrusting the other, each 
wishing to be in control. The Army asked 
for overdue pay, and laws to protect them 
for their acts during the war, and the Par- 
liament blamed them as troublers of the 
state. Cromwell for some time played the 
part of go-between, distrusted by both. 

The household of Milton meanwhile suf- 
fered within three months the loss of 
Richard Powell and John Milton, father- 
in-law and father of the poet. By the death 
of Powell, whose affairs were left in con- 
fusion, Milton lost the money due him as 
marriage-portion, £1,000; by that of his 
father he seems to have inherited some- 
thing, for about this time he is believed to 
have given up teaching. The absence of 
198 



To End of the Civil War 

pupils and of the Powell family enabled 
Milton to remove to a smaller house in 
High Holborn, near Lincoln's Inn Fields, 
though not now identified. Mead's "Mil- 
ton's England" says : u The new home was 
among pleasant gardens, and near the bowl- 
ing-green and lounging-place for lawyers 
and citizens." The fields back and to 
southward of Milton's new home were 
"frequented from an early period by wres- 
tlers, bowlers, cripples, beggars, and idle 
boys." In an old play a drunken fellow 
draws his sword against a crowd of teasing 
boys, saying, "I will make a generation of 
young cripples to succeed in Lincoln's Inn 
Fields!" and other references show that 
the locality was not considered safe at night 
— though that is true of almost any un- 
lighted locality in those days before police 
were known. 

Among those who had frequented the 
bowling-green was Lilly, who afterward 
became noted as an astrologer, being con- 
sulted even by King Charles himself. He 
199 



In the Days of Milton 

had been a servant at a house near by, and 
spent "his idle hours in bowling with Wat 
the Cobbler, Dick the Blacksmith, and such 
like companions." 

Of Milton's life at this time Garnett 
quotes the poet's own account: "No one 
ever saw me asking anything among my 
friends or stationed at the doors of the 
Court with a petitioner's face. I kept my- 
self almost entirely at home, managing on 
my own resources, though they were often 
in great part kept from me, and contriving 
though burdened with taxes — in the main 
rather oppressive — to lead my frugal life." 
He wrote nothing to aid in settling the re- 
ligious disputes then so active, and busied 
himself with the beginning of a History of 
England, a Latin treatise on Divinity, and 
collecting material for a Latin dictionary — 
occupations hardly more connected with the 
needs of the timethan were the speculations 
of Dr. Thomas Browne upon the question 
of "Urn Burial." Merely in order to pass 
on to other topics, it may be said that the 
200 



To End of the Civil War 

History was never completed, the materials 
for the lexicon were afterward used by one 
of his nephews, and the religious treatise 
came out over twenty-five years later. 

Dr. Garnett is inclined to blame Milton 
for failing to become "the apostle of tolera- 
tion in England as Roger Williams was in 
America," adding that we are in danger 
of forgetting that "he was, in the ordinary 
sense of that much-abused term, no Puritan, 
but a most free and independent thinker, 
the vast sweep of whose thought happened 
to coincide for a while with narrow orbit 
of so-called Puritanism." 

Finely expressed as this is, it may occur 
to the reader that the times in England 
were not such that even Milton's pen could 
have pointed a shorter way to toleration 
than CromwelPs sword. In the middle of 
1647 action outran argument. Fearing 
that the Parliament and King might agree 
against the Independents, some one — pos- 
sibly Cromwell — sent Cornet Joyce and 
five hundred troopers to Holmby House, 
201 



In the Days of Milton 

and on the 5th of July the King was invited 
to accompany the cornet. Charles asked 
for his commission, and Joyce exhibited his 
troopers. u As well written a commission, 
and with as fine a frontispiece, as I have 
ever seen in my life," was the King's witty 
reply; but Joyce also was a man of ready 
tongue, for upon the King's stipulating that 
they should "exact nothing that offends my 
conscience or my honor," the Independent 
officer retorted: "It is not our maxim to 
constrain the conscience of anyone, still less 
that of our King" — and the cavalcade set 
out. 

Newmarket was their destination, for the 
army was at Saffron Walden, between that 
town and London, and on the way they 
stopped at Cambridge, where Cromwell, 
Fairfax and other officers held an interview 
with the prisoner, disclaiming the responsi- 
bility for his seizure; but at Newmarket in 
custody of the army the king remained, 
without pretence of legal warrant. 

Then began the confusion of authorities 
202 



To End of the Civil War 

— eleven members having been expelled by 
the army, in June, a London mob drove 
out the Independent members in turn, and 
then the Speakers of the Houses having put 
themselves under protection of the army, 
Cromwell and Fairfax marched to London 
and took possession of Westminster and the 
Tower, on August 7, 1647. I* was soon 
after this march that Milton's removal to 
High Holborn was made. 

The rest of 1647 was taken up in re- 
newed attempts to come to an understand- 
ing, but Cromwell and Charles met as an 
irresistible and immovable body, and the 
two set conscience against conscience, 
neither yielding a jot — which made prog- 
ress impossible. The army, too, made it- 
self heard with propositions to set up what 
was really a republic, and only after a great 
public prayer-meeting could even the Inde- 
pendents find toleration for each other's 
views of the proper course to be followed 
to establish a stable government. 

But the King helped to solve their per- 
203 



In the Days of Milton 

plexities by fleeing away from London 
(whither he had been brought from New- 
market) and taking refuge in Carisbrooke 
Castle, Isle of Wight — which ended nego- 
tiations with him. 

Then came a mutinous spirit in the army, 
suppressed by Cromwell's personal influence 
and bravery, he arresting fourteen ring- 
leaders, condemning three, and causing one 
to be executed; but soon it came to be 
known that Charles had made another 
treaty with the Scots, and measures were 
taken to insure that the King should not 
escape from Carisbrooke. So ended 1647, 
a most exciting year for all the dwellers in 
London Town, and not at all favorable to 
literary pursuits by quiet Mr. Milton in 
his house at Holborn. 

In a copy of Milton's published poems, 
a first edition, belonging to the British Mu- 
seum, Henry Morley discovered on the 
back of page 87 a manuscript poem en- 
titled "An Epitaph." It seemed to be 
signed with the initials "J. M." and the 
204 



To End of the Civil War 

date "10 ber. 1647," °ut the J is doubtful, 
being obscured by the Museum stamp. In 
Morley's collection of poems of the time, 
"Kings and Commons," he prints these 
lines, gives a facsimile of the original, and 
argues strongly for their genuineness. 
Most of the authorities are said to have 
decided against the piece; but apart from 
the poem itself, it would seem that the cir- 
cumstances of its discovery argue strongly 
in its favor. 

The copy in which the poem appears 
comes from what is known as the "King's 
Library," a collection made by George III., 
and the stamp coming over the initial J. 
proves that the poem was there when the 
volume came to the British Museum. To 
believe the lines written by someone whose 
initials resembled J. M., in December, 
1647, ^ s difficult. To believe a forgery was 
introduced before the book was in posses- 
sion of the Museum, assumes that a most 
aimless piece of literary rascality was com- 
mitted many years before the discovery of 
205 



In the Days of Milton 

the lines by Henry Morley's accidental ex- 
amination. 

Every student of Milton will be inter- 
ested by the lines, and many will believe, 
with me, that they are genuine — or at least 
so likely to be genuine that they should not 
be excluded from the complete collections 
of his verse, even if they be marked as 
doubtful. Two of the words of the poem, 
Heaven and itself, occur in an inscription 
written by Milton in 1639 m an autograph 
album afterward owned by Charles Sum- 
ner, and the facsimiles of these words, 
which I have compared, have remarkable 
resemblances. 

In speaking of the England of Milton's 
time we must beware of giving to it the 
characteristics of the empire we know. The 
whole population was only about five and 
a half millions, of whom a half million 
lived in London; while to-day thirty-three 
millions of people are in England and 
Wales; and London, "Greater London," 
includes six millions and a half — more than 
206 



To End of the Civil War 

the whole country included in the middle of 
the seventeenth century. Manchester had 
only one-hundredth of its present numbers, 
or about 6,000 in all; and the villages of to- 
day are not unlike the towns of Milton's 
time, so far as trade and activity are con- 
cerned. 

The most valuable export was wool, 
English wool being celebrated then as now ; 
tin and lead also were sent abroad in quan- 
tities in exchange for silk, cotton, indigo 
and spices. Fishing was a most important 
industry, and the choice fishing-grounds 
were eagerly claimed. Once at sea there 
was little regard for any law but that of the 
strongest, and piracy if successful was little 
condemned. 

No American reader needs to be re- 
minded that this was the era of colonizing, 
except during the actual Civil War, nor 
that, while English merchants hoped for 
gold and spices, the colonists could send 
home only timber, grain, tobacco, and fish. 
As trade was controlled by monopolies and 
207 



In the Days of Milton 

privileges, many were enriched, and until 
Puritan manners prevailed there was much 
money expended upon lavish costumes, or, 
by those of more cultivation, upon books, 
pictures, curiosities, or their scientific pur- 
suits. 

The dissolute courtiers were of another 
stamp, and wasted the revenues of their 
estates in orgies such as are described in 
Taine's "English Literature" — vulgar glut- 
tony, stupid horseplay, or shameless prof- 
ligacy — and led their snobbish imitators 
into ruinous extravagance. Even King 
Charles had little influence in restraining 
the vices of his favorites, though he did not 
practice them himself. Of course there 
were well-behaved gentlemen in all the 
parties, but the general tone of all society 
was coarser and more brutal, and there was 
little sympathy for suffering in man or ani- 
mal. Superstitions of the most trivial sort 
were not uncommon among all classes, as- 
trologers and fortune-tellers, witchcraft 
and amulets being believed in by men and 
208 



To End of the Civil War 

women of the highest standing. Supersti- 
tious matters figured in the trials of the 
high courts. 

But at the same time there was much 
learning, a wide appreciation of the arts, 
and a home-life that was delightfully lux- 
urious, among the higher classes; and the 
standard of comfort even among the merely 
well-to-do was much higher than it had 
been but a few generations earlier, under 
Queen Elizabeth. Commerce and trade 
had made the life of all classes fuller and 
wider, and there was a sturdy race of small- 
farming folk and tradesmen who became 
the backbone of the Roundhead armies 
under Cromwell. 

The life of the time was no longer so 
different from our own that it can be read- 
ily characterized ; to arrive at a proper idea 
of the times the easiest method is to sub- 
tract recent inventions from our own time, 
rather than to recount the improvements 
since the days of Good Queen Bess and 
William Shakespeare. 
209 



CHAPTER XIII 

LAST DAYS OF ROYALTY 

THESE years, when all England was 
in turmoil with a thousand and 
one unrecorded skirmishes, when 
it taxed the wisdom of all men promi- 
nent in public affairs to make even a 
guess at the outcome, were times of com- 
parative quiet in the life of the Puritan 
poet. The only facts to record in regard 
to his work are the translating of certain 
Psalms and the writing of a few minor 
pieces, such as the sonnet to General 
Fairfax. As regards the Psalms, it was 
wittily said by Walter Savage Landor that 
"Milton was never so much a regicide as 
when he lifted up his hand against King 
David." Nor is this criticism too severe, 
though there is at least this excuse for the 
210 



Last Days of Royalty 

work: Apparently, Milton had not the 
slightest interest in it, but considered it a 
duty to provide the Church with new ver- 
sions of the Psalms to take the place of 
those that were disused in the old English 
prayer-book. He might, if left free, have 
made the translations equal his other 
poetical work, but he considered himself 
bound to alter the Scriptural words and 
phrases as little as possible and to add to 
them the least number of words that would 
put them into English verse. As a result, 
he works like a schoolboy solving a puzzle, 
rather than as a poet. 

The only other event besides the writing 
of these few pieces of verse is the birth of 
his second daughter in October, 1648, who 
was named for her mother, Mary Milton. 

So far as public events go, there is a 
different story to tell. As John Morley 
says in his "Life of Oliver Cromwell," 
quoting Cromwell himself, the year was 
made memorable even in those stirring 
times by "many insurrections, invasions, 
211 



In the Days of Milton 

open and public attempts, all quashed in so 
short a time, and this by the very signal ap- 
pearance of God himself." 

King Charles was trying, while negotiat- 
ing with the Parliament, to secure the aid 
of a Scotch army in return for his promise 
to establish Presbyterianism for three years. 
The covenant to this effect was secretly 
buried in the garden of Carisbrooke Castle, 
securely wrapped in a sheet of lead. 

Disgusted with the failure to come to 
terms, the Parliament at length voted to 
make no more addresses to the King. The 
English people were at this time weary of 
the war, particularly of the heavy taxes 
needed to carry it on, and though they 
seemed mere turncoats, it is probable that 
many men were honest in their choice and 
desired to attain peace as quickly as pos- 
sible by joining the stronger side. 

General Fairfax was sent to suppress the 
Royalists in East England, and drove them 
into Colchester, whicn he besieged. Crom- 
well put down the malcontents in Wales, 

212 



Last Days of Royalty 

and then marched to meet the Scotch army, 
although he had but about nine thousand 
men against twenty-four thousand. An- 
other revolt in Stamford was also quickly 
suppressed by the skilled Parliamentary 
forces. 

It was Fairfax's siege of Colchester that 
led Milton to write his "Sonnet to the Lord 
General Fairfax." In this sonnet occurs 
a word which shows that there were still 
reminiscences of falconry in the public of 
Milton's time. The word "imp," which 
means to mend a hawk's broken wing by 
fitting on a new piece to the broken shaft, 
is one that would hardly present itself to 
a modern poet. The same word occurs in 
Shakespeare's "Richard II.," with the same 
sense. 

In the "Life of Cromwell" before 
quoted, Morley speaks of the condition of 
the soldiers in Cromwell's army during 
their march to meet the invading Scotch: 
"Shoes and stockings were worn out, pay 
was many months in arrears, plunder was 
213 



In the Days of Milton 

sternly forbidden, and not a few of the 
gallant men tramped barefoot from Wales 
into Yorkshire. With fire in their hearts, 
the tattered veterans carried with them the 
issue of the whole long struggle and the 
destinies of three kingdoms. The fate of 
the King, the power of Parliament, the 
future of constitutions, laws and churches 
were known to hang upon the account 
which these few thousand men should be 
able to give of the invaders from over the 
northern border." 

The enemies met at Preston, and then 
began a struggle that lasted three days, 
Cromwell being completely victorious, as, 
indeed, he always was, for he is one of the 
few commanders in history who never suf- 
fered defeat. The whole Scotch army was 
cut to pieces or put to flight, and thereafter 
Oliver Cromwell became a deciding factor* 
in the politics of England. During his 
absence the Parliament had repealed their 
resolution not to communicate with the 
King, and had entered into proposals for 
214 



Last Days of Royalty 

a treaty with him at Newport, on the Isle 
of Wight. Clarendon, the Royalists' his- 
torian, in describing the King at this time, 
gives us some idea of his terrible suffering 
during these years of strife. "Though he 
had not seen the King," he writes, "for 
nearly two years, he found his countenance 
extremely altered. From the time that his 
own servants had been taken from him, 
he would never suffer his hair to be cut, 
nor cared to have new clothes. . . . 
His hair was all grey, which, making all 
others very sad, made it thought that he 
had sorrow in his countenance which ap- 
peared only by that shadow." The reader 
is at liberty to find a meaning in this last 
sentence if he can. 

The vain attempt to make terms with 
the King lasted from the middle of Sep- 
tember until the end of November, but 
when Cromwell was back in England and 
the army was once more free to exercise full 
influence, it was not long before the Par- 
liament's negotiations came to a sharp con- 
215 



In the Days of Milton 

elusion. It is not known who took the 
step, but at daybreak on December 6th, 
a number of officers broke into the King's 
bedchamber and carried him off to Hurst 
Castle, "a desolate and narrow block-house 
on the Hampshire shore." 

Meanwhile, having put the King be- 
yond the reach of the Presbyterian leaders 
in Parliament, the army 'marched into Lon- 
don. And on the same day that saw the 
seizure of the King, Colonel Pryde, a 
trustworthy Independent, by military force 
proceeded to "purge" the Parliament of 
those members who were opposing the In- 
dependents and the army. Cromwell de- 
nied that this was done by his order, but 
admitted that he was glad of it, and "would 
maintain it." This Pryde's "purge" left 
only a small portion of the English Par- 
liament, about one-fifth of the members, 
and these men who favored the army's 
supremacy. A week before the end of the 
year, the King was brought to Windsor, 
and after a solemn fast-day in London, 
216 



Last Days of Royalty 

December 27th, there began a discussion 
as to what should be done to prevent 
further mischief-making by the King. So 
ended the year. 

Before proceeding to the next year, we 
will note a few events of the one just clos- 
ing. On the 10th of August died Lord 
Herbert of Cherbury, a man well known to 
succeeding ages by his charming Autobiog- 
raphy, which has been called a "brilliant 
picture of the man and of contemporary 
manners — a masterpiece in its kind." He 
was a brother of George Herbert, author 
of "The Temple," "some of the purest 
pious verse in the language." Lord Her- 
bert had been for a time a soldier in the 
King's army, but four years before his 
death had surrendered and was living in 
London. One interesting fact in the life 
of this writer, known as the first among 
theistical essayists, is his own account of 
his asking for a sign from a higher power, 
to encourage him to oppose the revealed 
religion. Whereupon he says that he was 
217 



In the Days of Milton 

"answered by a light yet gentle sign from 
Heaven." Among all his writings, his 
Autobiography is undoubtedly the favorite, 
since it reveals an outspoken, earnest 
thinker and a nobleman of an intrepid, 
chivalrous disposition, though not lacking 
in self-esteem. During this year was pub- 
lished Herrick's "Hesperides," a book so 
well known to-day that no description of it 
is necessary. Of course, Herrick was one 
of the Royalist poets. 

In domestic science, perhaps the most 
notable advance was the application of the 
pendulum to clocks, which was carried out 
by Christian Huygens after a suggestion 
originally made by Galileo. Huygens was 
a distinguished Dutchman, whose achieve- 
ments in the field of applied and pure 
science are amazing. Before this time, 
clocks were regulated by a vibrating bal- 
ance, instead of a swinging pendulum. The 
balance was on too, rushed by the escape- 
ment-wheel, and swung to and fro, releas- 
ing the teeth much as a pendulum now does. 
218 



Last Days of Royalty 

The greater accuracy of the pendulum 
would seem to come from the fact that it 
acts with less friction, and so is more apt 
to remain regular. It is also more easily 
adjustable. 

We note in the briefest possible way 
that this year there were in Virginia two 
executions for witchcraft, and that the 
colony had grown to include twenty thou- 
sand inhabitants and a fleet of thirty-one 
merchant vessels. In France, the country 
was distracted by the Fronde War, and, 
indeed, during the most difficult periods of 
the Commonwealth it was fortunate that 
affairs on the Continent were in such con- 
dition as to absorb the attention of those 
foreign nations that might otherwise have 
been led to take part in the civil strife in 
England. Had it not been so, there might 
have been very serious complications, par- 
ticularly as the English navy, like the popu- 
lation ashore, was greatly divided, and the 
King's adherents were nearly as numerous 
as those of the Parliament. Indeed, in this 
219 



In the Days of Milton 

very year, a mutiny occurred in the fleet 
that resulted in the secession of a large 
number of English vessels, which sailed 
away to The Hague, in Holland, where 
they put themselves into the hands of the 
Royalists. 

As soon as the army of Independents 
were in control of affairs, and in possession 
of King Charles, they proceeded to put into 
effect their resolution to hold him answer- 
able for the manifold disasters of the na- 
tion. For this purpose they desired to set 
up a court that would have some color of 
right, and to create a law under which he 
might be convicted. Both were easily made 
by a vote of the remainder of Parliament, 
and the consent of the House of Lords — 
of which but a dozen members were left — 
was voted to be unnecessary. Apparently 
a drum-head court-martial would have been 
the better proceeding, as being more 
frankly a war measure. 

Algernon Sidney told the newly created 
"High Court of Justice," "The King can 
220 



Last Days of Royalty 

be tried by no court, and no man by this 
court," and refused to take part. General 
Fairfax, Skippon and Vane also withdrew ; 
but the King was arraigned. 

When the President, Bradshaw, a cousin 
of Cromwell, declared that the charge was 
high treason, "in the name of the people of 
England," a voice cried, "It's a lie! — not 
a tenth part of them. Oliver Cromwell is 
a traitor 1" But when they sought to arrest 
the speaker, the voice was found to be that 
of Lady Fairfax, and she was not molested. 

The King refused to plead, was of course 
condemned, and after a brief delay in 
which he bade farewell to his daughter and 
youngest son, he was executed, amid a ring 
of soldiery, upon a high scaffold in front of 
Whitehall. 

The Londoners for the most part were 
not in sympathy with this action of the 
army; and instead of strengthening the In- 
dependents it sent many into the Royalist 
ranks, converting a grudging loyalty 
toward Charles the father into an enthu- 
221 



In the Days of Milton 

siastic support of Charles the son. Difficult 
to justify on any grounds, the execution of 
their prisoner seems a blunder of policy. 
Certainly, it roused the fear and hatred of 
all foreign monarchies, and gained no 
friends for the army at home. Perhaps the 
best that can be said in favor of those who 
put him to death is that they believed it 
would save bloodshed by hastening peace, 
that it had been their lives against his, and 
he had lost. That he bore himself with 
dignity on the scaffold is not surprising in a 
king and soldier, and it would have been 
remarkable if he had done anything "com- 
mon or mean" — to quote Marvell's lines. 

Carlyle rightly says that u no modern 
reader can conceive the then atrocity, 
ferocity, unspeakability of this fact," the 
slaying of "a monarch by divine right" 
under authority of the opposed right of the 
sword. But the mass of the army were re- 
ligious fanatics who asked no authority for 
their acts beyond some text of scripture 
they interpreted to their need; and so, on 
222 



Last Days of Royalty 

the day set, January 30, 1649, tne King 
was put to death, and a piece removed from 
the political chessboard. 

A week later a few friends buried him 
in St. George's Chapel at Windsor, in a 
vault where "a fellow of the town" said 
Henry VIII and Jane Seymour lay; for 
the chapel had been so dismantled that 
there was no clew to the places of the va- 
rious tombs. 

"The King is dead — long live the 
King!" is the rule in monarchism; and 
Charles the Second was at once proclaimed, 
in Holland at The Hague, by Ormonde in 
Ireland, and by the Scotch legislators ; and 
a new hydra head confronted the Parlia- 
mentary leaders. 

Within two weeks, probably laying aside 
the chapters of his history of England for 
the purpose, Milton had come to the aid of 
the regicides with his pamphlet, "The 
Tenure of Kings and Magistrates," an ar- 
gument to justify their course. Shortly put, 
Milton claimed the right of revolution 
223 



In the Days of Milton 

against tyranny, the right to withdraw the 
authority entrusted to rulers, and further 
the right to bring to justice for his crimes 
the ruler deposed. All this he supports by 
citations from the Bible and from history; 
but on the question of distinguishing a re- 
bellion from a revolution he gives no help 
save the old notion that a rebellion is an 
unsuccessful revolution. The pamphlet 
leaves the question where it begins, and so 
must we, for it is insoluble. We can do no 
more than decide for ourselves whether the 
necessity of the case was great enough to 
override all law. 

Within a month, Milton was asked to 
become * 'Secretary of Foreign Tongues" 
to the "Committee for Foreign Affairs," 
and on March 15, 1649, ne appeared at 
Whitehall, accepting the office, at a salary 
of £288, equivalent to some $4,500 a year. 
Soon afterward the new secretary removed 
to lodgings near where Charing Cross had 
stood till 1647. 

For it was a time of demolishing what- 
224 



Last Days of Royalty 

ever might offend the ultra-Protestants, and 
Charing Cross, which had stood three and a 
half centuries, was among those "voted 
down" by Parliament in 1643, though it 
was left standing till four years later. 
There is a poem in "Percy's Reliques" 
called "The Downfall of Charing Cross," 
wherein some Royalist says : 

"Methinks the Common Council should 

Of it have taken pity, 
'Cause — good old Cross ! — it always stood 

So firmly to the City. 
Since crosses you so much disdain, 

Faith, if I were as you, 
For fear the King should rule again 

I'd pull down Tyburn, too!" 

Such were the gentle compliments ban- 
died about amid the more serious disputes 
in the Kingdom. The current newspapers 
abused one another even in reporting the 
most important items of the war, as may 
be seen in the quotations made by Disraeli 
in his "Quarrels of Authors." An amusing 
instance is the refusal of the Royalist 
225 



In the Days of Milton 

"Mercurius Aulicus," published at Oxford 
by Sir John Birkenhead, to reply to a libel 
of the Puritan "Mercurius Brittanicus" 
until that paper could learn to spell its own 
name correctly. In its next issue the Puri- 
tan sheet took the hint and appeared as the 
u Britannicus. n 






226 



CHAPTER XIV. 



MILTON AS THE COMMONWEALTH'S 
DEFENDER. 



THERE seems to be among the biog- 
raphers of Milton an almost uni- 
versal regret that at a time when 
he was eager to give himself to poetical 
work, he should have accepted a place 
where he was no more than an inter- 
preting mouthpiece for England's states- 
men and politicians. But it may well 
be that Milton needed the money. He 
had given up his school, and if living 
upon his father's estate, it is more than 
likely that the revenues from this had 
been made uncertain by the war and its 
results. Certainly, in the one case about 
which we know, the debt owed him by the 
Powell family, we are aware that it was 

22J 



In the Days of Milton 

no more than a few figures on paper from 
which he never realized a single penny. 
Although the salary was not much when 
compared with that of the real Secretary of 
State, Milton's superior in office, yet for 
a man who tells us that his tastes were 
simple, the income seems a very important 
matter. Besides, the employment brought 
him into close acquaintance with the men 
then in power and enabled him to aid, if 
only in a small way, the cause in which he 
sincerely believed. 

During the few months following, be- 
sides writing letters that are of no impor- 
tance to us, Milton produced at least one 
state paper, that helps us to know his opin- 
ions on affairs, although it is likely that the 
outline of it was furnished him. March 28 th 
came out his "Observations on Ormonde's 
Peace. " The Duke of Ormonde, Charles 
I.'s mouthpiece in Ireland, had granted the 
Irish home rule, and release from the oath 
of supremacy. The paper is interesting to 
us chiefly because it contains a glowing 
228 



As the Commonwealth's Defender 

eulogy of Oliver Cromwell and indicates 
the hearty sympathy with which Milton 
served the new government. 

A much more important task soon came 
to the Secretary. Within a few days after 
the death of the King, there was published 
a book under the title "Eikon Basilike," 
the Greek words meaning royal image or 
portrait. This work had been prepared by 
Dr. John Gauden, and it had been sub- 
mitted to King Charles while a prisoner in 
the Isle of Wight, and had received some 
corrections in his own handwriting. But 
the authorship of the book remained a se- 
cret until after the Restoration, and most 
people supposed that it was the work of 
the King himself. It professed to be the 
reflections of Charles during his imprison- 
ment, and represented him in glowing 
colors as a martyr to his religious convic- 
tions and the victim of his misguided sub- 
jects. Mark Pattison, in his charming 
"Life of Milton," declares that "poet's 
imagination had never invented a theme 
229 



In the Days of Milton 

more calculated to touch the popular 
heart." The eikon was that of a "saint 
and martyr, a man of sorrows praying for 
his murderers, a king who renounced an 
earthly kingdom to gain a heavenly, who 
in return for his benefits received from an 
unthankful people a crown of thorns." 
Published when it was, the book's influence 
was enormous, its circulation extraordinary. 
Forty-seven editions were printed, fifty 
thousand copies being circulated, and its 
influence was felt wherever there was a 
glimmering spark of loyalty to the House 
of Stuart. 

The book had appeared late in the sum- 
mer, and the government decided that an 
answer must be promptly published. It is 
said that their first thought was to call upon 
John Selden, the foremost scholar in Eng- 
land, but their final decision fell upon Mil- 
ton. Before October, he had written a 
quarto of over two hundred and forty 
pages, wherein, taking up the royalist 
pamphlet he answers step by step the argu- 
230 






As the Commonwealth's Defender 

ments and suggestions, in Eikonoclastes — 
"the image-breaker." 

Milton's argument, after an apology for 
attacking a dead adversary, takes the 
ground that the publication which he criti- 
cises is intended rather to bolster up a 
living cause than to vindicate the memory 
of the dead, displays one by one the topics 
treated, and sets forth strongly the oppos- 
ing view. His reply has been characterized 
as lacking dignity, but, considering its pur- 
pose, he seems justified in ignoring the sen- 
timentality of the royalist book and oppos- 
ing reason and common sense to its appeals 
to mere feeling. Much importance was 
given at the time to a plagiarized prayer 
from Sidney's "Arcadia," that appeared in 
"Eikon Basilike," but there seems to have 
been no intention on either hand to deceive 
the public, the prayer being adapted by 
some one for the King's use and inserted 
without acknowledgment because it was 
supposed by Dr. Gauden to be original. 
To the literary student, an interesting 
231 



In the Days of Milton 

passage of the "Eikon" is that in which 
Milton says: "I shall not instance an ab- 
struse author wherein the King might be 
less conversant, but one whom we well 
know was a closet companion of these his 
solitudes, William Shakespeare," and then 
goes on to liken some of the King's utter- 
ances to those of Richard III. But Patti- 
son sees in this "an unworthy device of 
rhetoric, as appealing to a superstition in 
others which the writer himself does not 
share," namely, the hatred of the Puritan 
public for the stage and dramatists. 

While Milton was thus fighting the 
wordy battles of the Commonwealth from 
the rooms that had been assigned to him 
a short time before in the palace at White- 
hall, Oliver Cromwell was absent in Ireland 
subduing the Royalists with a thorough- 
ness that has won him the detestation of a 
whole race. Two instances of his severity 
are oftenest cited. After capturing Drog- 
heda and Wexford, the garrisons of both 
were slain. Over this action controversy 
232 



As the Commonwealth's Defender 

has raged ever since, but, impartially 
viewed, the killing of the garrisons seems 
to be no worse than a score of similar pro- 
ceedings on both sides during these civil 
wars. Cromwell's men looked upon the 
Irish as savages who had murdered thou- 
sands of Protestants, and they felt toward 
the Royalists who incited them to resistance 
much as the American colonists felt toward 
the French who brought Indian allies to 
attack them. It seems only fair to say that 
Cromwell had not exceeded what was al- 
lowed by the usages of war in his day, and 
that provocation was great. 

The bearing of these happenings upon 
John Milton is direct only because he be- 
came an out-and-out adherent of Cromwell 
and his policy, and therefore our estimate 
of his character must be to some extent 
affected by our opinion of the great Parlia- 
mentary General. Milton's life at this 
time was closely bound up with that of the 
active government. He lived, as has been 
said, in apartments at Whitehall Palace, 

^33 



In the Days of Milton 

which had been set aside for his use in 
November, 1649. His eyesight was be- 
ginning to fail. He had pains in his eyes 
that caused drowsiness and giddiness when- 
ever they were at all tired by use. This 
state had existed for some time, and now 
he found himself even unable to read by 
candle-light; and yet there was never a 
time, according to his own opinion, when 
he might have put his eyesight to better use. 
Just before the end of this year, there 
reached England another Royalist publica- 
tion, from the pen of him who was con- 
sidered the most learned man in Europe, 
Claude de Saumaise, a scholar and man of 
letters attached to the University of Ley- 
den. Charles II, living at The Hague, 
had commissioned this savant to prepare 
a defence of the King, though it is prob- 
ably untrue that anything was paid for the 
service. In the case of such a man, flat- 
tery, of which Charles II afterward 
proved himself a past master, would prob- 
ably have availed more than any sum the 
234 



As the Commonwealth's Defender 

impoverished heir to the throne could have 
raised. 

Saumaise went, as was the fashion of 
the day among scholars, by the Latinized 
form of his name, Salmasius. Saumaise 
had before written against Episcopacy, and 
in this defence of the King he was accused 
by his friends of being inconsistent. The 
name of this new attempt to arouse Royal- 
ist feeling in England was, "The Royal 
Defence for King Charles L" 

Space does not permit any examination 
of the arguments. We are interested only 
in knowing that the task of answering Sau- 
maise was committed to Milton, who gave 
more than a year to the preparation of his 
reply, and then brought out his "Defence 
of the People of England." 

During this year one other work of im- 
portance was a new edition of Eikonoclas- 
tes, for two new editions of the answer 
were all that had been required, while 
forty-seven of the Royalist pamphlet had 
appeared. 

235 



In the Days of Milton 

Meanwhile, the public news was of the 
most stirring character. King Charles had 
agreed to the terms proposed by the Scotch 
representatives, and by the middle of 1650 
was in Scotland at the head of an army. 
Montrose also had raised his forces of 
Highlanders, and was defeating the Cov- 
enanters, but his career this time was short, 
for, after only a month's campaign he was 
defeated and captured, and, being taken to 
Edinburgh, was there hanged on the 21st 
of May in the place of execution reserved 
for the lowest felons. The other Royalists 
fared better for a time and seemed about 
to prevail. They took up a strong posi- 
tion to the east of Edinburgh upon the crest 
of a hill, and refused to be drawn into an 
engagement, though Cromwell used every 
device to provoke them to it. At length, 
the English army, worn out by their out- 
door life, decided to withdraw toward the 
coast where they might be nearer to the 
ships that brought them their provisions, 
and could, if necessary, fortify themselves 
236 



As the Commonwealth's Defender 

against the stronger Scotch. Leslie, the 
Scotch commander, seeing them put their 
sick aboard the ships, believed that they 
had shipped their artillery and a strong 
part of their forces. Whereupon he 
marched in pursuit of them, and succeeded 
in cooping them up near Dunbar, where 
it was impossible for them to escape. They 
could not embark for fear of an attack; 
they were not strong enough to storm the 
heights on which lay the Scottish army; 
they could not march away without expos- 
ing themselves to a flank attack from an 
enemy stronger than themselves. 

Things at length looked dark for Crom- 
well's men, but, urged by the Presbyterian 
preachers, the Scotch finally decided to at- 
tack, marched down from the hills, and 
made ready for battle. Cromwell guessed 
their design, began the attack before they 
were quite ready, and after the fiercest of 
engagements, hand to hand in the little 
valley of Brox Burn, scattered the Scotch 
army in ignominious flight, having suf- 

237 



In the Days of Milton 

fered the loss of a very few men. This 
battle was fought on the third of Septem- 
ber, a date that often seemed a momentous 
one to Oliver Cromwell, as his history 
shows. 

After this first defeat of the Scottish 
army, Cromwell was able to march to Edin- 
burgh, which opened its gates to him. The 
castle still holding out, he was compelled 
to besiege it until the end of 1650. 

The next year, Charles II having taken 
the Covenant to satisfy his Scotch follow- 
ers, and thereby having incurred the re- 
proach of being in a sense a traitor to the 
memory of both father and mother, took 
command of another Scotch force and at- 
tempted to repeat the same strategy that 
had preceded Dunbar. Once more Crom- 
well was compelled, being the invader, to 
remain at the foot of the Scotch hills, con- 
fronted, almost surrounded, by the Scotch- 
men, unable to attack, and losing strength 
daily. Again we see Cromwell sending let- 
ters to the Parliament at home, explaining 
238 



As the Commonwealth's Defender 

his dangerous plight, but expressing un- 
bounded faith in his power to extricate him- 
self from it. And this he did. 

The Scotch were near Stirling. Crom- 
well sent his troops across the Frith of 
Forth at Queens Ferry, where it is narrow, 
thus placing himself between his enemies 
and their supplies. Perth, then the seat of 
government, surrendered, and the situation 
was Dunbar reversed, for Charles and his 
army had now to march away northward, 
and starve, or surrender. 

Hoping to revive Royalist feeling in 
England, Charles boldly invaded the king- 
dom, taking the westward road while 
Cromwell followed in the east. The hope 
of arousing England proved vain. By the 
time he had reached Worcester, Charles 
had been able to get together only about 
sixteen thousand men when Cromwell, com- 
manding nearly twice as many, engaged 
him. 

The battle of Worcester was fiercely con- 
tested for a time, but soon Cromwell suc- 
239 



In the Days of Milton 

ceeded in entering the town, the Royalists 
were cut to pieces, and King Charles es- 
caped only by a swift flight northward and 
disguising himself as a peasant. Although 
Cromwell's soldiers eagerly scoured the 
country, the King was safely concealed, 
passing some hours in the historic oak-tree, 
and at length made his escape. 

When Milton had been commissioned to 
write the ''Defence of the People of Eng- 
land" against Salmasius, he had been 
warned by his physicians that it would prob- 
ably be at the loss of his eyesight. He be- 
lieved them, but concluded that the occa- 
sion warranted the sacrifice, and by 1652 
total blindness had come upon him. 

The same year saw the birth of his v third 
daughter, Deborah, and the death soon 
after of his wife. 



240 



CHAPTER XV 



from Cromwell's dominion to the 
restoration 



WHEN the Independents, or rather 
the party of Cromwell and his 
officers, were well established in 
power it was seen again that prosperity may 
come to a land under any vigorous govern- 
ment. Cromwell and his advisers con- 
trolled not England alone, but Scotland and 
Ireland; and in all three the interests of the 
great middle class, the farmers, traders, 
and manufacturers, were looked after bet- 
ter than had been done under the kings. 

During the war, England had lost her 
supremacy at sea and had little or no trade 
at home ; but now that she was ready once 
more to enter into competition with other 
lands, the government prepared to regain 
241 



In the Days of Milton 

all that had been lost. The Dutch Re- 
public had seen in England's inactivity a 
chance to extend its trade, and England's 
reawakening brought the two Protestant 
commonwealths into strife. 

War became inevitable. It may be that 
the ill-feeling between Dutch and English 
was increased because of the use of the 
Dutch presses as means to spread royalist 
pamphlets, for the English would naturally 
resent this harboring of their enemies by a 
Protestant republic that should have been 
in sympathy with them. 

After Milton had so effectually answered 
Salmasius, he was attacked in a Latin pam- 
phlet by an Englishman, Peter du Moulin, 
son of a Calvinist preacher, and a resident 
of Oxford and London. This publication 
was named (to translate the Latin title) 
u The Cry of the King's Blood to Heaven," 
and was brought out in Holland by Alex- 
ander More ("Moms"), and two years 
afterward Milton replied to its scurrility in 
an equally disgraceful attack upon More. 
242 



Cromwell to the Restoration 

Another publication by Salmasius was an- 
swered by Milton's nephews; but there is 
no profit in enlarging upon these mud- 
throwing duels. They brought from Mil- 
ton an account of his own life, and that is 
all that remains valuable in the three years' 
controversy. 

During the Dutch war and the war of 
words, Milton remained Latin Secretary, 
but cut little figure in public affairs. His 
Latin pamphlets made him known abroad, 
and he was now and then visited by for- 
eigners, even keeping open table for them 
at times, the expense being allowed him by 
the state. But all this was personal and 
scholarly reputation. In transactions of 
moment, Milton was but a clerk. 

Despite the valor and skill of the Dutch 
Admiral Tromp, and the vaunting broom 
he had affixed to the masthead of his ves- 
sel, the English fleet under Cromwell's ad- 
ministration had been so well manned and 
equipped — the great Sir Henry Vane being 
one of the Naval Commissioners — that in 
243 



In the Days of Milton 

a warfare of two years, 165 2-1 654, the 
Admirals Blake and Monk had soundly 
thrashed their Dutch rivals, taking seven- 
teen prizes in the two years, winning every 
great battle, and inflicting upon Holland a 
loss of £6,000,000. Spain in her eighty 
years' warfare had not so chastised the 
Dutch Republic. 

The English Navy had been divided in 
allegiance during the civil war, and a re- 
volted part, under Prince Rupert, had done 
much damage to the commerce of their na- 
tive land. But when Blake, who began his 
service to the state as a Captain of Dra- 
goons, came into command of the common- 
wealth's navy, he had chased Rupert so per- 
sistently that in March, 1652, the royalist 
fleet was sold to France, in despair of its 
being of use to the King. 

The same tactics now cleared the sea of 
the Dutch, and in 1654 and 1655, Blake 
sailed into the Mediterranean, subdued the 
Barbary pirates, levied contributions on 
Italy, and won for England the supremacy 
244 



Cromwell to the Restoration 

of the ocean. In the West Indies, Ad- 
mirals Penn and Venables were unsuccess- 
ful in an attack on Hispaniola or San Do- 
mingo, but took and held Jamaica. Spain's 
commerce was seriously crippled by the vic- 
tories of the English fleet. 

Blake completely changed the system of 
naval tactics. He believed, like Farragut, 
that a vigorous attack was the best defence, 
and he put an end to the old notion that 
fortresses on land could not be successfully 
engaged by fleets. He was one of the men 
who made the Commonwealth of England 
a dominant world-power. 

Milton's blindness became total in 1652 
or 1653, and probably caused his retire- 
ment from the more ordinary routine of his 
secretaryship. He was allowed to retain 
part of his pay as a sort of pension, and was 
thus able to give more time to his long de- 
ferred poetical work. Two sonnets of this 
year show that the poet's interest was keen 
in the religious questions of the time. Both 
are appeals to men in authority to deal 
245 



In the Days of Milton 

wisely with the church questions then dis- 
cussed. 

The first is to Cromwell, who was then 
the real ruler of England, though not yet so 
named. He exhorts Cromwell to win the 
victories of peace, "no less renowned" than 
those of war, and to save England from the 
hirelings "whose gospel is their maw" — 
the same "blind mouths" against whom he 
had spoken so bitterly in "Lycidas," written 
fifteen years earlier. To Vane the second 
sonnet carries the same message. Sir 
Henry Vane, whom Americans love to re- 
member as the Governor of the Massachu- 
setts Colony in 1636, was now one of the 
Council of State, and by no means a blind 
follower of Cromwell. Wendell Phillips, 
a man in many respects like Vane himself, 
called "Roger Williams and Sir Henry 
Vane the two men deepest in thought and 
bravest in speech of all who spoke English 
in their day," and says "Vane's ermine has 
no stain . . . Milton pales before 
him in the stainlessness of his record." 
246 



Cromwell to the Restoration 

These two men, Cromwell and Vane, were 
the representatives of two parties soon to 
come to a parting of the ways; but when 
Milton wrote they were acting in apparent 
harmony. 

April 20, 1653, brought them into direct 
conflict upon the floor of Parliament, and 
though in a time so teeming with events we 
can but glance here and there at a striking 
scene, we must look upon this session of the 
English law-makers. They were trying to 
form a new scheme for a governing Par- 
liament. Cromwell, representing the army, 
lost patience with the men like Vane, who 
meant to govern by means of a new repre- 
sentative body that should be formed by 
themselves and should include only "Godly 
men faithful to the interests of the Com- 
monwealth," as John Morley declares in 
his "Oliver Cromwell." 

Cromwell, on April 20th, with a guard 

of soldiers, entered the House of Commons, 

and when the bill for the new Parliament 

was about to pass, rose, exclaiming: "This 

247 



In the Days of Milton 

is the time. I must do it !" Then he spoke, 
charging them with delays and injustice, 
and other faults, at last declaring: "It is not 
fit you should sit here any longer !" Crom- 
well then called in his "grim musketeers; 
men of might and men of war," as Carlyle 
puts it, and after bitter reproaches com- 
mands the members to leave : "Depart, I 
say, and let us have done with you. In 
the name of God — go!" 

"At their going out, some say the Lord 
General said to young Sir Harry Vane, that 
he might have prevented this, but that he 
was a juggler and had not common hon- 
esty"; and then Cromwell is said to have 
exclaimed: "Oh, Sir Harry Vane, Sir 
Harry Vane — the Lord deliver me from 
Sir Harry Vane !" 

So ended the Rump Parliament, leaving 
in England no organized power but the 
army; and on this momentous scene Milton 
has no word — and historians do not yet 
agree in their verdicts upon it. 

Next followed an attempt to rule by 
248 






Cromwell to the Restoration 

means of a Parliament of "chosen saints," 
or strict Independents. Cromwell later ad- 
mitted its failure, calling it u a story of my 
own weakness and folly," for the "Bare- 
bones Parliament" was chosen by him and 
his officers. "All," says Morley, "were 
zealous and sincere, but the most zealous 
were the worst simpletons." 

By the end of the year, all power was 
handed over to Cromwell, and the Protec- 
torate began. The last scene in Parliament 
was farcical. A few fanatical members re- 
mained after the majority had voted them- 
selves out. "What are you doing here?" 
asked the Commander who was sent to turn 
them out. "We are seeking the Lord," 
was the canting answer. "Then," came 
the soldier's reply, "you should go else- 
where, for to my knowledge the Lord has 
not been here for twelve years past." 
Though this may be only a made-up anec- 
dote, it well expresses the attitudes of the 
fanatics and that of the army who expelled 
them. 

249 



In the Days of Milton 



It was in this year of contending parties 
that Izaak Walton brought out his "Corn- 
pleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's 
Recreation" ; a fact that may remind us that 
some men in England thought of other mat- 
ters than politics, war and religion, and 
found time to enjoy the beauties of nature. 
The author was a retired linen-draper, or, 
as he was called later, a "sempster," or man 
milliner, who was able to live upon his sav- 
ings, and give his time to polishing and add- 
ing to his "Angler" until the original thir- 
teen chapters grew to twenty-one. Walton 
was beloved by his friends while he lived, 
and by his readers ever since he has been 
equally cherished. Born fifteen years be^ 
fore Milton, Walton survived the poet nine 
years, being ninety when he died. 

Notable events of the years 1652 to 
1655 were tne death of Salmasius, the op- 
ponent of Milton; of John Selden, consid- 
ered the most learned man in England, and 
author of the charming little book of his 
"Table Talk," one of the minor legacies of 
250 



Cromwell to the Restoration 

literature; of Admiral Tromp; of Inigo 
Jones, the architect, whose work makes 
much of the history of English building 
during Milton's earlier life; the first ap- 
pearance of the Unitarian denomination, 
and the first meetings of the Quakers. Each 
of these might fill chapters; indeed, one 
might crowd a chapter with a mere list of 
the events that could not have been other- 
wise than of intense moment to Milton. 
For we have come now to the days of which 
voluminous records remain, in newspapers, 
letters, diaries, records, books by the actors 
in the incidents they describe. 

John Selden, at least, must have more 
than a single line; for he was very great. 
To quote from the royalist historian, Lord 
Clarendon : 

"Selden was a person whom no character can flat- 
ter or transmit any expressions equal to his merit 
and virtue. He was of so stupendous a learning in 
all kinds and all languages that a man would have 
thought he had been entirely conversant among 
books, and had never spent an hour but in reading 
and writing; yet his humanity, affability, and 

2 S l 



In the Days of Milton 

courtesy were such that he would have been thought 
to have been bred in the best Courts, but that his 
good nature, charity, and delight in doing good ex- 
ceeded that breeding." 

So spoke an honest royalist of this great 
Puritan scholar. 

Green's history shows us how these days 
of English supremacy abroad were days of 
discontent and of beneficent tyranny at 
home. Cromwell united the kingdoms, re- 
created the army and navy, established a 
clergy that was at least efficient and con- 
scientious, if not a united body or a national 
church; enforced toleration except for the 
Episcopacy and Catholicism, and made 
"England the chief sea-power of the 
world." 

In all these matters Milton had little or 
no share. It has been said by more than 
one of his biographers that there is noth- 
ing to show any personal intimacy between 
him and the leading men of the Protec- 
torate, though he was known to them. Au- 
gustine Birrell says in "Obiter Dicta": 
252 



Cromwell to the Restoration 

"The busy great men of the day would 
have been more than astonished, they would 
have been disgusted, had they been told 
that posterity would refer to most of them 
compendiously as having lived in the age 
of Milton." 

And Birrell says also that Milton was 
"just a clerk in the service of the Com- 
monwealth, of a scholarly bent, peculiar 
habit of thought, and somewhat of an odd 
temper." A similar remark was made at 
the time by a Swedish Ambassador to the 
English who complained of delays in his 
business, saying, "When he desired to have 
the articles of a treaty put into Latin, ac- 
cording to the custom, it was about four- 
teen days they made him stay for that 
translation, and sent it to one Mr. Milton, 
a blind man." He adds that it "seemed 
strange there should be none but a blind 
man capable of putting a few articles into 
Latin." The only public matters in which 
the blind poet took part were the continued 
controversies with royalism that brought 

253 



In the Days of Milton 

out his "Second Defense of the English 
People," his "Defense of Himself," and his 
"Manifesto of the Lord Protector," and 
similar prose writings. His verse included 
in 1655 and 1656 nothing longer than five 
more sonnets. 

First of these is that on the massacre 
in Piedmont, by many thought his grand- 
est sonnet, the well-known lines beginning : 
"Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints!" 
The sonnet written on his blindness, with 
its grand conclusion, "They also serve who 
only stand and wait," seems equally sub- 
lime in conception and perfect in form. The 
remaining three commemorate two of those 
young friends who "accounted it a privi- 
lege to read to him, to act as his amanu- 
enses, or to hear him talk," during his quiet 
retirement in his home in Petty France. 
These were Lawrence, son of the President 
of Cromwell's Council, and Skinner, prob- 
ably an old pupil, the grandson of Sir Ed- 
ward Coke, the lawyer. That these young 
men were his intimates shows that Milton 
254 



Cromwell to the Restoration 

was not a forbidding recluse, and this the 
tone of these sonnets confirms. 

But the widower's household, a blind 
man and three small daughters, needed a 
housewife; and in 1656, November 12, 
Milton was married for the second time, to 
Catherine Woodcock, whom his eyes had 
never beheld. With her he was happy for 
the brief time she lived; but in a few 
months more than a year she and an infant 
daughter born to her died, leaving him 
again in his lonely house, for his eldest 
daughter was not yet twelve. The last of 
his sonnets arose from a dream of the dead 
wife Catherine, and the ending line is most 
pathetic: 

"I waked, she fled ; and day brought back my night." 

The house in Petty France stood until 
about thirty years ago, but is now demol- 
ished, as Masson notes in the preface to 
the "Globe" edition of the poems; and of 
all Milton's homes only one remains, that 
occupied by him during the plague in Lon- 

255 



In the Days of Milton 

don, some ten years later than the period 
we have now reached. 

Besides Lawrence and Skinner, Andrew 
Marvell, the poet, and Lady Ranelagh are 
mentioned as friends to Milton in his blind- 
ness. His nephews did little honor to his 
training, at least in their earlier youth, for 
both showed a leaning toward that frivol- 
ity and irresponsibility for which reaction 
from Puritanism may have been to blame. 
One of them was even publicly accused of 
being a propagator of immorality on ac- 
count of certain writings that were any- 
thing but moral and serious. The same 
spirit of revolt against the dominant tone 
was rife among the people, and caused 
many prosecutions by the government. A 
revolution, indeed, was planned, but sup- 
pressed before it made much headway. De- 
spite these signs of discontent, Cromwell 
was governing liberally and well. He 
patronized men of learning, and established 
a new university at Durham ; he attached to 
his cause men of talent by recognizing their 
256 



Cromwell to the Restoration 

ability and achievements — as when he hon- 
ored Blake, both alive and dead. If he 
was unscrupulous in practical statesman- 
ship, he was never cowardly nor indirect, 
and he believed in himself and in the 
guidance of a higher power. He was not 
vindictive, and out of the many plotters of 
his death none was condemned to die, and 
only one died in prison — Saxby, the author 
of "Killing No Murder," a publication 
justifying assassination of the Protector. 

During the same year in which Milton 
really began the writing in epic form of 
"Paradise Lost," Oliver Cromwell was 
taken ill, and after ten days of "prayers 
poured out abundantly and incessantly in 
his behalf," the Protector died on Friday, 
September third, a day of moment in his 
history, for it is the date of the battles of 
Dunbar and of Worcester. 

"Oliver is gone," Carlyle writes, "and 
with him England's Puritanism, laboriously 
built together by this one man, and made a 
thing far-shining, miraculous to his own 

257 



In the Days of Milton 

Century, and memorable to all the Cen- 
turies, soon goes." 

And with the death of Cromwell ceases 
the active life of John Milton, as a man 
whose counsels were followed, or whose 
words were of weight with those who di- 
rected public affairs. Though he issued a 
few more prose pamphlets trying to stem 
the tide that was setting toward the restora- 
tion of the Stuarts, and the union of church 
and state, there is no evidence that he was 
regarded. While Richard Cromwell was 
being set aside, and several experimental 
Parliaments were proving their incapacity, 
Milton wrote his "Civil Power in Eccle- 
siastic Matters," "The Readiest Means to 
Remove Hirelings Out of the Church," 
and his "Ready and Easy Way to Establish 
a Free Commonwealth." But General 
Monk entered England at the head of an 
army on the first of January, 1660, saying 
that he came to "stand to and assert the 
liberty and authority of Parliament" — but 
failing to declare just which "Parliament" 
258 



Cromwell to the Restoration 

he meant. All parties assumed he came 
in their interest, for indeed Monk had been 
with nearly all in turn. Anarchy followed, 
and then three armies met near Marston 
Moor, one under Lambert, a second under 
Monk, a third under Fairfax, who re- 
garded the recalling of the monarchy as the 
only possible means of restoring order. 

Lambert's men deserted to Fairfax, and 
all opposition to Monk's advance was at 
an end. He marched to London and de- 
clared for a "free Parliament," which was 
equivalent to declaring for King Charles. 
London had become royalist again, and 
"went wild with delight." Bells, bonfires, 
bumpers to the King, rumps of beef roast- 
ing in the streets in derision of the Rump 
Parliament, all testified to the desire for 
the return of the monarch whose father had 
been executed for treason. The Common- 
wealth was ended. 



259 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE RESTORATION AND MILTON'S LAST 
YEARS 

ON the same day that Monk and his 
army entered England, Sunday, 
January i, 1660, Samuel Pepys 
began his Diary; and henceforth to the end 
of May, 1669, we nave tne almost daily 
journal of a citizen of London picturing 
minutely the events of London life until 
within five years of Milton's death. With 
such an account accessible to every reader, 
no modern story of the times is needed. 

Only so far as Milton is directly con- 
cerned, then, need we touch upon the hap- 
penings about which Pepys and Evelyn 
have told us the story in full. For Evelyn, 
absent from England during the days of 
warfare, returned February 6, 1652, and 
260 



The Restoration and Last Years 

records in his diary the events until Feb- 
ruary 3, 1706, thus filling out Pepys' ac- 
count until over thirty years after Mil- 
ton's end. On that Sunday when Monk 
marched over the border, both of the dia- 
rists were present in Exeter Chapel, and 
heard Peter Gunning, afterwards Bishop 
of Chichester and Ely, preach a sermon 
that both noted in their diaries. 

Let us then speak only of the events im- 
mediately affecting the blind poet, and help- 
ing us to know him during the last four- 
teen years of his life, in Charles IPs reign. 

By the seventh of May, and after the 
publisher of Milton's "Ready and Easy 
Way to Establish a Commonwealth" had 
been arrested for various "treasonable pub- 
lications," there was no doubt that Milton 
would risk his life if he did not conceal 
himself. He went, therefore, to live in 
Bartholomew Close, a narrow passage not 
far from his Jewin Street home, where a 
friend received him. This Bartholomew 
Close was afterward the location of several 
261 



In the Days of Milton 

printing-houses, among which was Pal- 
mer's, where Benjamin Franklin was em- 
ployed as a journeyman-printer sixty-five 
years after Milton's residence there. Here 
the poet remained about four months, while 
King Charles made his solemn entry with 
twenty thousand soldiers, over flower- 
strewn streets, with sound of trumpets, 
pealing of bells, and the acclamations of 
"myriads of people flocking," as Evelyn 
tells us; while goods pillaged from White- 
hall were being restored, while addresses 
were presented, banquets were held, and en- 
tertainments given to express London's joy 
and loyalty. 

Considering how absolutely at the mercy 
of the royalists were the fallen leaders of 
the Roundheads, it is remarkable that so 
few were victims of revenge. About 
twenty suffered, ten regicides being exe- 
cuted, and the bodies of Cromwell, Brad- 
shaw, Ireton, Blake, and Pryde were dis- 
gracefully made the objects of their ene- 
mies' malice. Milton's writings against 
262 



The Restoration and Last Years 

Charles I were burned by the hangman, 
but he was not molested, except by a short 
imprisonment. That he suffered no greater 
evil is thought due to his friends Andrew 
Marvell and Sir Thomas Clarges, the 
brother-in-law of General Monk, and pos- 
sibly to the efforts of Milton's royalist rela- 
tives. It is said also that Davenant inter- 
vened for Milton in gratitude for a similar 
service the poet had rendered him nine 
years earlier, when Davenant was impris- 
oned. Whether this particular story be 
true or false, one likes to remember that 
Shakespeare's godson was Milton's friend, 
and that each may have owed liberty to the 
other. 

Another less likely tale is that of a sham 
funeral of Milton devised by his friends to 
deceive the royalists into believing him 
dead. But at the end of August the most 
threatening danger was over, for an Am- 
nesty Act was passed, and though his im- 
prisonment followed his reappearance, he 
was discharged from custody before the 
263 



In the Days of Milton 

end of the year, having had the courage to 
appeal to Parliament for a reduction in the 
fees charged him while in custody. 

"His condition," wrote Pattison, u was 
one of well-nigh unmitigated misfortune. 
His cause lost, his ideals in the dust, his 
enemies triumphant, his friends on the scaf- 
fold or exiled or imprisoned, his name in- 
famous, his principles execrated, his for- 
tunes seriously impaired by the vicissitudes 
of the times." 

Nor had he happiness in his home to 
compensate for the troubles abroad; his 
daughters were unkind to him and unsym- 
pathetic. It is said they even sold his 
books slyly, cheated him in his household 
expenses, and gave him their services as 
secretaries most unwillingly, whereby they 
are sure to be remembered to the end of 
time as heartless creatures. 

After his release Milton lived for a short 

time in Holburn, near Red Lion Square, 

"where," as Mead records, "lay on a 

hurdle the ghastly bodies of Cromwell, Ire- 

264 



The Restoration and Last Years 

ton and Bradshaw," in January, 1661. 
But soon after he took a house in Jewin 
street, with his unloving daughters, and 
worked away upon the composition of 
"Paradise Lost," by the aid of others' eyes 
and hands. He had taught his daughters 
no more than enabled them, without under- 
standing the text, to read aloud to him the 
books in foreign languages that were use- 
ful in his work; and some of his biog- 
raphers find in their lack of education an 
excuse for their heartlessness. For a year 
or two this cheerlessness lasted, but about 
1662 he was introduced by his physician 
and friend, Dr. Paget, to Elizabeth Min- 
shull, a relative of the doctor, and a daugh- 
ter of a gentleman of Cheshire. She was 
thirty years younger than the poet, but in 
February, 1663, they were married. She 
is said to have been a pretty woman with 
golden hair, fond of music, agreeable and 
appreciative; certainly she was careful of 
the comfort of her blind husband, for he 
speaks gratefully of her regard for his 
265 



In the Days of Milton 

well-being and of her as protecting him 
from imposition ; and finally desired to leave 
her all his property. But there is also a 
statement, credited to Milton's nephew, 
that she oppressed his children during the 
father's lifetime, and cheated them after 
his death. It is well to remember that these 
family jars are seldom important and often 
misunderstood by outsiders. 

When Milton married he is said to have 
lived for a time in the house of Millington, 
a bookseller, who was seen now and then 
leading him about the streets of London. 
The last residence of the poet was, except 
during a brief time in the country during 
the London plague, a house in Artillery 
Walk, Bunhill Fields — then an open dis- 
trict, now entirely changed and renamed. 
Near this home was the celebrated "Grub 
Street," since known as Milton Street, a 
locality once frequented by those who made 
a living by the manufacture of bows, ar- 
rows, and other things used in archery; 
then the site of bowling-alleys and gam- 
266 



The 'Restoration and Last Years 

bling-houses, and about Milton's time of 
cheap lodgings, where were many obscure 
authors, who here found tenements within 
their narrow means, and gave, the locality 
its well-known reputation. 

During the few years between the Res- 
toration and Milton's taking his residence 
in Artillery Walk, there are a few hap- 
penings worthy of note as giving a knowl- 
edge of the peculiarities of the times. In 
the streets, a great public improvement was 
the substitution of glass windows for those 
of mica, in the hackney coaches ; one of the 
great British institutions was founded, the 
Royal Society, and is believed by many 
writers to have been a mighty agency in 
modifying, by the study of science, the as- 
cendency which mere authority held over 
men's minds. Prince Rupert, having al- 
ready distinguished himself on land and 
sea, and escaped as if by magic the slight- 
est injury, although he had recklessly 
courted every danger, began those scientific 
studies which have brought him fame as a 
267 



In the Days of Milton 

winner of victories by intellectual daring. 
He is known to fame as the improver of 
mezzotint engraving, as an inventor of 
gunpowder and a composition called 
prince's metal, as well as for chemical, 
physical, and mechanical studies. Most 
young students have been amused by seeing 
the explosion of those tiny globules of 
glass known as "Prince Rupert's drops." 

In literature, the same period is notable 
for the appearance of Butler's "Hudibras," 
in 1663-4, a long and rambling satire di- 
rected against the extravagances of the 
Puritans. Butler, by the way, was greatly 
admired by Lowell, though moderns find 
him anything but easy to read. 

The political life of the time turned, of 
course, upon the domination of the re- 
turned Royalists. King Charles, at Breda 
in Holland, had made certain promises as 
conditions of his restoration, securing par- 
don to the great body of his opponents, as- 
suring those who had acquired confiscated 
estates that their titles should not be dis- 
268 



The Restoration and Last Years 

turbed, making provision for the payment 
of arrears due the army, and implying that 
the consciences of his subjects should not 
be unnecessarily disturbed. 

In 1662 the marriage of Charles to 
Catharine of Braganza gave England Bom- 
bay, her first foothold in India. In Parlia- 
ment, the general situation was that of a 
union of interests between Cavaliers and 
Presbyterians, a union that made it possible 
to arrive at an agreement as to an estab- 
lished Church, but an alliance that, through 
fear of the Papists, was unable or unwilling 
to pass an act of general toleration. From 
the Church, the secession of many of the 
clergy was inevitable, and the attempt to 
suppress the dissenting clergymen gave rise 
to a new persecution. 

It has been said that the Restoration, 
though a necessity, ended a heroic age, and 
brought one of brief and dark decay. 
Charles's government was the most shame- 
less England ever endured. King and 
courtiers were profligate, and in the reac- 
269 



In the Days of Milton 

tion from austerity, society followed their 
lead. Parliament undid much of its best 
work, passed persecuting laws, weakened 
England abroad, and by returning to a cor- 
rupt method of electing its members, caused 
a long train of political corruption which 
existed until that method was reformed, 
nearly seventy years later. 

Yet not all of the good work of the Com- 
monwealth was destroyed. A brief history 
of the Civil War period, entitled "King 
and Commonwealth," quotes Burke's say- 
ing that "a great deal of the furniture of 
ancient tyranny was torn to rags," and 
names, among the benefits remaining, the 
end of taxation without Parliament's con- 
sent, the disuse of torture, the suppression 
of arbitrary courts, and, above all, the un- 
forgettable proof that the real, national 
power lay in the people who, having once 
overthrown the monarchy, might do so 
again. The same history says truly that 
the most iniquitous enormity of the Res- 
toration was the execution of Sir Harry 
270 



The Restoration and Last Years 

Vane. Those who see in Charles I a mar- 
tyr owe it to their consciences to compare 
with the King's death that of Sir Harry 
Vane, and to read of that trial wherein 
from love of justice, rather than fear of 
death, the great Puritan courageously 
fought day after day, not to save his life, but 
topreserve his honor from the slightest stain. 
It was when news of these events was 
being brought daily to the blind poet that 
he composed the earlier part of "Paradise 
Lost." There is an oft-quoted account of 
his daily habits at this time. Upon rising, 
he listened to a reading of the Scriptures, 
often in Greek or Hebrew ; after his break- 
fast he gave himself to his literary work 
until noon; an hour of exercise followed 
upon a sort of swing in his study. After 
dinner, some time was given to music, for 
he played upon the organ and other instru- 
ments. More literary work followed until 
six, after which friends were welcome until 
his supper at eight. After supper and a 
pipe of tobacco, he retired early. 
271 



In the Days of Milton 

It is said that when dictating, Milton 
u sat leaning backward obliquely in an easy- 
chair, with his leg flung over the leg of it," 
and often he would repeat the lines com- 
posed at night, before he got up in the 
morning. Among those who aided him 
was a young Quaker, Thomas Ellwood, 
and from Ellwood's own Memoirs we have 
learned several interesting incidents. 

In 1665, in the month of April, began 
London's great plague. Gardiner says: 
"The streets were narrow and dirty, and 
the air was close because the upper stories 
of the houses overhung the lower ones. No 
medical aid appeared to avail. . . The 
dead were too numerous to be buried in 
the usual way, and carts went their rounds 
at night accompanied by men ringing a bell 
and calling 'Bring out your dead!' The 
bodies were flung into a huge pit, without 
coffins." By July 29th, as Pepys records, 
the deaths were a thousand a week ; by Au- 
gust 10th, above three thousand; by the 
end of August, above six thousand; and 
272 



The Restoration and Last Years 

this is believed to be an under-statement. 
Perhaps the best idea of its prevalence may 
be obtained by reading Pepys' entry in his 
Diary for the 14th September, 1665. De- 
foe's "Journal of the Plague," though fic- 
tion, gives a true picture of the awful event. 
Toward the fall a decrease in the number 
of deaths began, and by winter the plague 
was ended. 

During the worst of the visitation Mil- 
ton had decided to leave the city, and a 
house in the country was secured for him 
by young Ellwood. To this he removed in 
April or May, 1665, and stayed for about 
a year. The house was at Chalfont, St. 
Giles, about twenty-three miles from Lon- 
don, and still exists in much the same con- 
dition as then, having been preserved as a 
memorial. There is on the title-page of this 
book a vignette of the little cottage. It is 
built of brick and timber, and has two en- 
tries, four sitting-rooms, and five bed- 
rooms. The windows are diamond-paned, 
opening outward, and in the house are 

273 



In the Days of Milton 

pieces of furniture that once belonged to 
the poet. 

By this time Milton had finished his 
epic, "Paradise Lost," for young Ellwood 
records that the manuscript was lent to 
him to be read. Most interesting of his 
comments upon it is his saying, "Thou hast 
said much here of Paradise lost, but what 
hast thou to say of Paradise found?" 
Knowing the Quakers' avoidance of 
"thou," it seems likely that Ellwood would 
have said "thee" in both cases, even if it 
appears otherwise in his own book. This 
remark is acknowledged by Milton to have 
given him the idea for "Paradise Re- 
gained." There is a letter of Milton's, 
dated August 15, written to assure an in- 
quirer abroad that he had not perished 
during the plague, containing an apology 
for possible errors in the letter, and making 
the excuse that in dictating the Latin, he 
has to spell every word for his young 
amanuensis. 

When he returned to London, in the 
274 



The Restoration and Last Years 

spring of 1666, it was to his residence in 
Artillery Walk, where he remained until 
his death. The great event of this year, 
overshadowing all others, was the fire that 
destroyed fifteen out of twenty-six wards of 
the city, and half destroyed eight more, 
leaving only three wards entirely un- 
touched. The ruins covered a space of four 
hundred and thirty-six acres. The fire be- 
gan on Sunday, September 2, 1666. The 
previous summer having been very dry, 
there being no organization, or method of 
fighting the flames, and a strong easterly 
wind prevailing, the fire spread rapidly, 
burning down whole streets, and lasting 
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. St. Paul's 
Cathedral was destroyed, but Westminster 
Abbey was saved. Among the houses 
burned was Milton's birthplace, in Bread 
Street. 

The inhabitants took refuge in the fields, 

the government building huts and tents for 

them. The calamity, however, brought 

more than one blessing. By removing 

275 



In the Days of Milton 

"rows of pestilential hovels and narrow, 
dirty and inconvenient streets/' the health 
of the city was so greatly improved that the 
plague never visited it again, though 
hitherto there had been an epidemic about 
every live years. 

Dr., afterward Sir Christopher, Wren 
prepared plans for improving the city, 
which were carried out in part. Many of 
the most celebrated churches of London 
were then rebuilt or restored in accordance 
with his plans, including the magnificent 
St. Paul's Cathedral. 

Among the public events of this year 
should be noted two more defeats of the 
Dutch on the sea by the English under 
Prince Rupert and General Monk. These 
victories not only assured England's com- 
mercial supremacy, but were also a grati- 
fication to the King, who was angered at 
Holland because of the depriving of office 
of his nephew, William of Orange. 

Gardiner says : "The sailors of both na- 
tions were equally brave and equally at 
276 



The Restoration and Last Years 

home in a sea fight, but the English ships 
were better built, and the English guns 
were better." 

During the earlier years of this naval 
war, it is of interest to Americans to re- 
member the capture of New Amsterdam 
and its renaming as New York, after the 
King's brother, the Lord High Admiral. 

Despite English victories, the war con- 
tinued amid diplomatic negotiations that 
led Charles to believe peace would soon be 
declared. Consequently, he dismantled his 
feet. Whereupon the Dutch fleet sailed 
up the Medway, took four men-of-war, and 
blockaded the Thames so the Londoners 
could get no coal. This caused a great 
scare in London and led to concessions by 
the English and a treaty of peace in July, 
1667, whereby England exchanged her last 
trading station in the Spice Islands for the 
Dutch territory in America, giving her 
practically the whole coast. 

While rebuilding in London was pro- 
ceeding, "Paradise Lost" was published, 
277 



In the Days of Milton 

under an agreement securing to Milton five 
pounds down, five pounds after the sale of 
the first edition of thirteen hundred copies, 
and two more similar sums when two more 
editions of the same size were sold. Pos- 
sibly the first payment would be equivalent 
to about fifty dollars now. The first ver- 
sion contained but ten books, two being 
added in later editions. Despite the un- 
popularity of blank verse, the poem 
brought Milton much renown within the 
next two or three years, and caused many 
celebrities to visit him in his home. 

Masson tells us that the poet was de- 
scribed at this time as a man of "slender 
figure, of middle stature or a little less, 
generally dressed in a great cloak or over- 
coat, and wearing sometimes a small silver- 
hilted sword. Evidently in feeble health, 
but still looking younger than he was, with 
his lightish hair and his fair, rather than 
aged or pale, complexion, he v/ould sit 
in his garden at the door of his house, in 
warm weather, receiving visitors." 

278 



The Restoration and Last Years 

It will perhaps surprise some readers to 
learn that Milton attended no church, be- 
longed to none, and held no religious ser- 
vices in his household. 

To characterize briefly a striking feature 
of Milton's epic, one can hardly do better 
than to quote Professor Masson's words 
in his Introduction to the poem : 

"To say merely that it is a most learned 
poem — the poem of a mind full of miscel- 
laneous lore wherewith its grand imagina- 
tion might work — is not enough. Original, 
as it is, original in its entire conception, in 
every portion and passage, the poem is yet 
full of flakes, we can express it no other- 
wise, from all that is greatest in preceding 
literature, ancient or modern. This is what 
all the commentators have observed, and 
what their labors in collecting parallel 
passages from other poets and prose 
writers have served more and more to illus- 
trate." 

Few critics exceed Mathew Arnold in 
stating with exactness the essential merits 
2/9 



In the Days of Milton 

of our great writers. In an address made 
a few years ago upon the placing of a 
memorial window to Milton's wife, he de- 
clared that Milton had preserved for 
modern readers the tradition of what is 
known as the great style. These are his 
words : 

"In our race are thousands of readers, 
presently there will be millions, who know 
not a word of Greek or Latin and will 
never learn those languages. If those hosts 
of readers are ever to gain any sense of the 
power and charm of the great poets of an- 
tiquity, their way to gain it is not through 
translations of the ancients, but through 
the original poetry of Milton, who has the 
like power and charm because he has the 
like great style." 

During this year occurred the death of 
the poets Cowley and Wither and of 
Jeremy Taylor. The next year died Sir 
John Denham and Sir William Davenant. 
In 1 67 1 the publication of "Paradise Re- 
gained," a much weaker sequel to the 
280 



The Restoration and Last Years 

greater epic, though containing a few ex- 
quisite passages, and "Samson Agonistes," 
a wonderful piece of dramatic composition 
in the style of the ancient Greek dramas, 
perhaps equal to anything he ever wrote, 
and seeming to speak the feelings of Milton 
himself in the words of the blind hero, 
proved that since the completion of his 
great epic Milton had devoted himself to 
little else than his poetical work. He al- 
ways had on hand, however, certain manu- 
scripts relating more or less closely to edu- 
cation, and during the last three or four 
years of his life he worked at his "History 
of Britain," a treatise on the art of logic, 
and two upon theology. One of these was 
lost for many years, not being discovered 
until 1823, when it was found in a roll of 
old papers in a public office in London. In 
1674, the year of his death, appeared the 
second edition of "Paradise Lost," then in 
twelve books, a collection of his "Familiar 
Letters," and a few minor publications. 
The "History of Britain" contained what 
281 



In the Days of Milton 

is considered the best portrait of Milton, 
the Fairthorne portrait, whose resemblance 
to the original was proved by its enthusias- 
tic recognition, years afterwards, by one of 
his daughters. 

On the 8th of November, 1674, "with- 
out pain, and so quietly that those who 
waited in his chamber were unconscious of 
the moment of his departure, John Milton 
died," and was buried in the Church of St. 
Giles, Cripplegate. 

To sum up justly the grandeur of Mil- 
ton's latest days, we must come to the 
American poet and critic, Lowell. His 
essay upon Milton ends with these words: 

"The grand loneliness of Milton in his 
later years, while it makes him the most 
impressive figure in our literary history, is 
reflected also in his maturer poems by a 
sublime independence of human sympathy, 
like that with which mountains fascinate 
and rebuff us. But it is idle to talk of the 
loneliness of one the habitual companions 
of whose mind were the Past and the Fu- 
282 






The Restoration and Last Years 

ture. I always seem to see him leaning, in 
his blindness, a hand on the shoulder of 
each, sure that the one will guard the song 
which the other had inspired." 



THE END. 



283 



APPENDIX 



CHIEF DATES RELATING TO MILTON'S 
LIFE AND WORKS 



DATE 


MILTON 


OTHER EVENTS 


LITERARY 
WORKS 


1603 




Accession James 
Gunpowder plot. 




1605 




"Don jQui- 
xote/ 


1607 




Jamestown Col- 






ony, Virginia. 


1 


1608 


Birth of Milton, Dec. 9. 


Birth of Claren- 
don and of Ful- 
ler. 




l6l I 






Authof ized 
Version 
Bible. 


l6l2 




Biith of Samuel 
Butler. 




1613 




Birth of Jeremy 


Drayton's 
"Polyol- 






Taylor. 








bion," 


1616 




Death of Shakes- 
peare. 




I6l8 




Thirty Years' War 

begins. 
Raleigh beheaded. 
Bacon Lord 

Chancellor. 




1620 


To St. Paul's School. 


Landing of Pil- 


Bacon's 






grims. 


"Novum 






Marriage of Oli- 
ver Cromwell. 


Orga- 






num." 


l62I 




Pascal born. 


Burton's 






Fall of Lord Ba- 


"Anatomy 






con. 


of Melan- 
choly." 


1623 






First Folio, 
"Shakes- 


1624 




Birth of George 


peare. . ; 
Translation 






Fox. 


Psalms 

114, i36. 

"On death 


l62S 


Milton enters Cam- 


Death James I. 




bridge. 




of Fair In- 
fant.'' 
Elegy to 
Diodati. 


1628 




Birth of John 


"A Vacation 






Bunyan. 


Exercise. 1 ' 






Petition of right. 




1629 






"Hymn on 
the Nativ- 
ity." 



285 



Appendix 



DATE 


MILTON 


OTHER EVENTS 


LITERARY 
WORKS 


163O 




Birth Charles II. 


"On the Cir- 
cumcis- 
ion." 

"On the 
Passion." 

"Song on 
a May 
Morning." 

"On Shakes- 
peare." 

"On Time." 














"At a Sol- 








emn Mu- 








sic." 


1631 




Birth of Dryden. 


"Verses on 
Hobson." 

"On March- 
ioness of 
Winches- 
ter." 

"Sonnet to 
Nightin- 


1632 


Milton leaves Cam- 


Birth of Samuel 


gale." 
"Sonnet on 




bridge. 


Pepys. 


Age 23." 
Herbert's 






Birth of John 






Locke. 


"Temple." 






Galileo's proof of 
the earth's mo- 














tion. 






Milton at Horton, July. 






1633 




Charles I crown- 


(1632-1638.) 






ed. 


"L'AUegro." 






Galileo condemn- 


"11 Pen- 






ed. 


seroso." 






Death of George 


"Arcades." 






Herbert. 


"Histrio- 






Laud Archbishop 


mastix," 






of Canterbury. 


by Prynne. 


1634 




First Ober Am- 


'Comus," 






mergau Passion 


(Present- 






Play. 


ed 1634.; 






Ship money im- 


Greek trans- 






posed. 


lation 
Psalm 114- 
Greek ver- 
sion Psalm 


J635 




Foundation Har- 


114. 
Quarles' 
"Em- 
blems." 






vard University. 


1636 


Milton made A.M. of 


Foundation 




Oxford. 


French Acad- 
emy. 





286 



Appendix 



DATE 


MILTON 


OTHER EVENTS 


LITERARY 
WORKS 


1637 


Death of Sara Milton, 


Death of B. Jon- 


"Comus" 




his mother. 


son. 


printed. 
"Lycidas," 






Church troubles 






in Edinburgh. 


written. 


1638 


Milton goes abroad. 


Hampden ad- 


"Lycidas," 






judged to pay. 


published. 




Visits Galileo. 


Death of Charles 


Corneille's 






Diodati. 


"Cid." 






Louis XIV born. 




1639 




Compromise with 


Fuller's 






Covenanters at 


"Holy 
War." 






Berwick. 








1638-1639. 








"Epitaph on 








Diodati." 








Sonnets, ep- 








igrams and 








canzone. 


164O 


Milton teaching his 
nephews in London. 


Montreal founded. 






Milton goes to Alders- 
gate House. 


Leslie routs 






King's troops. 








Long Parliament 








begins. 








Laud and Straf- 








ford impeached. 




164I 


Milton in controversy 


Strafford execut- 


Smectym- 




on church questions. 


ed. 


nuus con- 
troversy 






"Grand Remon- 


begins. 






strance" pre- 








sented. 








Death of Van 


"Reforma- 






Dyck. 


tion" 
touching 
Church 
Discip- 
line" and 
other 
prose 
pamph- 
lets. 


1642 




Accusing the "Five 


Fuller's 






Members. 


"Holy and 
Profane 

State." 






The King goes 


"Reason of 






to York. 


Church 
Govern- 
ment," 
published 
under 
Milton's 
name. 



287 



Appendix 



DATE 


MILTON 


OTHER EVENTS 


LITERARY 
WORKS 


1642 






War begins. 
Annapolis found- 
ed. 
London theatres 










Browne's 








closed. 


"Religio 








Battle of Edge- 
hill. 
Period of "Le- 


Medici." 








"Apology 
for Smec- 








gend of Mont- 








rose," Scott. 


tymnuus." 








Death of Galileo. 










Birth of Newton. 


Sonnet, 
"When As- 
sault." 


1643 


Milton Marries 


Mary 


Death of Hamp- 


"Book of 




Powell, who 


leaves 


den. 


Sports," 




him. 




"Solemn League 
and Covenant." 


burned. 


1644 






Vogue of Witch- 
craft and As- 
trology. 

Battles of Mars- 
ton Moor and 
Newbury. 


"Areopagi- 
tica." 

Tractate on 
Education. 

Divorce 
tracts. 

Sonnets, 
To a Lady, 
to Mar- 
garet Ley. 

"Familiar 


l64S 


Milton in Barbican 


Death of Manso. 




house. 






Letters of 

Tames 

Howell." 




Return of Mary 


Powell 


Battle of Naseby. 






to her husband 




Surrender of Bris- 
tol. 

Slaves brought to 
Salem, Mass., 
from Africa. 


"Tetrachor- 

don." 
"Colaster- 

ion." 
Sonnet on 

Detraction. 
Sonnet on 

Forcers. 


1646 


Milton's poems 


issued. 


Charles I sur- 
renders. 
Leibnitz born. 


Sonnet to 
H. Lawes. 

Browne's 
"Vulgar 
Errors." 


1647 


Milton moves to 
Holburn. 


High 


Last royalist 
stronghold, Har- 






At work on History of 


lech Castle, sur- 






England. 




renders. 





288 



Appendix 



DATE 


MILTON 


OTHEB EVENTS 


LITERARY 
WORKS 


1647 




Army takes pos- 


Latin 






session of the 


Dictionary, 






King, and occu- 


System of 






pies London. 


Divinity. 




Death of Richard Pow- 


Stuyvesant arrives 


Sonnet on 




ell and of John Mil- 


at New Amster- 


Catherine 




ton, Sr. 


dam. 


Thomp- 
son. 


1648 


Birth of Mary Milton. 


War renewed. 


"Psalms 80- 

87." 
Sonnet on 






Pendulum applied 






to clocks. 


Fairfax. 






Battle of Preston. 








Fronde war in 


Herrick's 






France. 


"Hesper- 
ides." 






Peace of West- 








phalia. 








"Pryde's Purge." 




1649 


Lives near Charing 


Charles I behead- 


"Tenures of 




Cross; then goes to 


ed, Jan. 30. 


Kings." 




Whitehall. 










House of Lords 


"On Or- 






and monarchy 


monde's 






abolished. 


Peace." 






Cromwell in Ire- 


"Eikon Bas- 






land. 


ilike." 
"Eikono- 




Latin Secretary to Coun- 


Charles II pro- 
claimed at The 


clastes." 




cil of State. 








Hague, in Scot- 
land and in Ire- 














land. 








Commonwealth 


Taylor's 






established. 


"Holy 






Birth of Marl- 


Living" 
and "Holy 






borough. 








Dying." 


1650 




Death of Des- 
cartes. 

Execution of 
Montrose. 








iNorth Carolina 


Baxter's 






settled. 


"Saints' 
Rest/' 






Battle of Dunbar. 








Dutch take Cape 








of Good Hope. 




l6SI 


Loses sight of one eye. 


Charles II crown- 


"Defensio 






ed. 


pro Popu- 
lo Angli- 






Battle of Scio, 


cano." 






Venetians and 








Turks. 





289 



Appendix 



DATE 


MILTON 


OTHER EVENTS 


LITERARY 
WORKS 


1651 




Cromwell invades 


Hobbes's 






Scotland. 


Levia- 
than." 






Battle of Worces- 








ter. 








Birth of Fenelon. 








Death of John 








Ford. 








Death of Ireton. 




1652 


Birth of Deborah Mil- 




Sonnets on 




ton. 




Cromwell 
and Vane. 




Death of Mary Powell 


Dutch war. 






Milton. 








Milton totally blind. 


Blake's naval ex- 


Controversy 






ploits. 


with 
"Morus." 




Lives in Petty France, 


Death of Inigo 






London, until 1660. 


Jones. 




1653 




Cromwell expels 


Walton's 






Parliament. 


"Compleat 






"Barebones" Par- 


Angler." 






liament. 








Death of Salma- 


Psalms 1-8 






sius. 


translated. 






Cromwell in con- 


Moliere's 






trol of affairs. 


earliest 
plays 






Victories over 


produced. 






Dutch navy. 




1654 




Death of John 


"Defensio 






Selden. 


Secunda." 






First meeting of 








"Quakers." 








Beginning of 
Unitarianism. 










1655 


Milton retires from ac- 


Capture of Island 


"Pro se de- 




tive work as secretary. 


of Jamaica. 


fensio." 
Sonnets on 
Piedmont, 
to Skin- 
ner, Law- 
rence, etc., 
On blind- 
ness. 


1656 


Second marriage, to 


Blake defeats 


Pascal 




Catharine Woodcock. 


Spanish fleet. 


writes 
"Provin- 
cial Let- 
ters." 
Harring- 
ton's 
"Oceana." 



290 



Appendix 



DATE 


MILTON 


OTHER EVENTS 


LITERARY 
WORKS 


1657 




Death of Blake. 

Cromwell install- 
ed as Protector. 

Death of William 
Harvey. 

Death of Crom- 




1658 


Death of second wife. 


"Paradise 






well. 


Lost" be- 






Death of Richard 


gun. 
"Raleigh's 






Lovelace. 


Cabinet 
Council." 


1659 




Resignation Rich- 


Sonnet to 






ard Cromwell 


Second 






and failure of 


Wife. 






Parliaments. 


Pamphlets 
on Church 
and State. 


l66o 


Milton in hiding, im- 
prisoned and released. 


Monk restores 


"Ready and 




Charles II. 


Easy Way 






"Act of Obliv- 


to Estab- 






ion." 


lish a Free 






Execution of 


Common- 






Regicides. 


wealth." 




Moves to house near 


Bunyan impris- 


"Pepys' 
Diary" 




Red Lion Square. 


oned. 








begins. 


l66l 


Moves to Jewin Street. 


Death of Thomas 
Fuller. 

Montrose exe- 
cuted. 




1662 


Trouble with his daugh- 


Charles II mar- 


Fuller's 




ters. 


ries Catharine 


"Wor- 






of Braganza. 


thies." 






Execution of 








Vane. 








"Act of Uniform- 








ity." 
Dunkirk sold. 








Roval Society re- 








ceives its char- 








ter. 




1663 


Marries Elizabeth Min- 


Impeachment of 


Butler's 




shull. 


Clarendon. 


"Hudi- 


1664 


Moves to Artillery 


Second Dutch 


bras." 




Walk. 


war. 




1665 


Milton at Chalfont Cot- 


London plague. 


Finishes 




tage. 


"Five-Mile Act." 


"Paradise 






Duke of York de- 


Post." 






feats Dutch 


(Begun 






fleet. 


about 
1658.) 


1666 


Milton in London 


Great Fire of 


Letter to 




again. 


London. 


Peter 
Heimbach. 



291 



Appendix 



DATE 


MILTON 


1666 
1667 


At Artillery Walk till 
his death. 


1668 




1669 




1670 




167I 




1672 




1673 





OTHER EVENTS 



1674 



Death of Milton, Nov. 
8; burial Nov. 12 in 
St. Giles, Cripplegate. 



Dutch fleet in the 
Medway. 

Deaths of Cowlev. 
Wither and Jer- 
emy Taylor. 

Rebuilding of 
London begun. 

Triple Alliance. 
Death of Denham 
and Davenant. 

Death of William 
Prynne. 



"Cabal" govern- 
ment. 

Treaty of Dover. 

Building of Tem- 
ple Bar. 

Coventry Act. 



Third Dutch war. 
Death of Bishop 
Wilkins. 

Test Act. 
Duke of York 

marries Mary of 

Modena. 



Peace with Hol- 
land. 



LITERARY 
WORKS 



Dryden's 
"Annus 

Mira- 
bilis." 
"Paradise 
Lost" 
published. 



'History of 
England" 
published. 
Book on 
Grammar. 

'No Cross, 
No 

Crown," 
by Penn. 



'Paradise 
Regain- 
ed." 

'Samson 
Agonis- 
tes." 

'Artis Log- 
icae." 



"Poems," 

second 

edition. 
"Of True 

Religion." 
"Treatise on 

Christian 

Doctrine" 

written. 
"Paradise 

Lost," 

second 

edition, in 

12 books. 
Familiar 

Letters. 
"Academic 

Exer- 



292 



'Appendix 



A BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY 

For Young Students of Milton. 

The Poetical Works of John Milton. Macmillan 
& Co., 1903. A one-volume edition, with Intro- 
ductions by David Masson, but without notes. 
This contains the general facts about all the poems, 
and virtually a life of the poet. 

English Poems by John Milton. Clarendon Press. 
Two volumes, with life, introduction, and selected 
notes by R. C. Browne. This has full explanations 
of the text, a chronological table, variorum read- 
ings, and a glossary. It is complete in itself, and 
perhaps the best single edition for the young stu- 
dent. 

Temple Edition. J. M. Dent & Co. Three vol- 
umes, one containing "Paradise Lost," one made 
up of "Paradise Regained," "Samson Agonistes," 
and "Shorter Poems," and the third made up of 
selections from the prose works. The last has an 
especially valuable essay by Professor Vaughan 
on the "Areopagitica." An excellent portrait is 
in each volume. 

The Poetical Works of John Milton. The Cam- 
bridge Edition. Three volumes. Edited by David 
Masson. The fuller volumes from which the Mac- 
millan Globe edition has been condensed. First 
edition, 1874; second in 1890. This is considered 
the standard edition. 

The Prose Works, with preface, preliminary re- 
marks, and notes by J. A. St. John. Five volumes, 
"Bonn's Standard Library." 

293 



Appendix 

Milton's Life and Times. 

The Life of John Milton, narrated in connection 
with the political, ecclesiastical and literary his- 
tory of his time, by David Masson. Seven vol- 
umes. Macmillan & Co., 1894. This is an almost 
too exhaustive collection of everything relating to 
its subjects. The seven large volumes give space 
for discussing all questions fully. Masson is, on 
the whole, the best authority upon the facts of 
Milton's life. 

Milton, by Stepfprd Brooke. "Classical Writers" 



Milton, by Mark Pattison, in the "English Men of 
Letters." An excellent one-volume life, with spe- 
cial regard to Milton's religious views, but un- 
prejudiced and able. 

Life of John Milton, by Richard Garnett. "Great 
Writers" series, published by W. Scott, London, 
1890. This one-volume biography is devoted spe- 
cially to the literary life, and brief critical esti- 
mates of the works, with illustrative quotations. 
Like all the volumes of this series, it contains an 
exhaustive and systematic bibliography prepared 
by John P. Anderson, of the British Museum. 

Life and Times of John Milton, by W. Carlos 
Martyn. American Tract Society. A good biog- 
raphy, emphasizing the church-questions; old- 
fashioned, but well written. 

Milton's England, by Lucia Ames Mead. L. C. 
Page & Co., 1903. A beautifully illustrated ac- 
count of the localities and surroundings of Milton 
in his homes. Readable and entertaining. With 

294 



Appendix 



maps showing the places most closely associated 
with the poet, an excellent portrait, and a good 
index. 

Homes and Haunts of British Poets, by William 
Howitt. Routledge. The article on Milton is 
brief, and needs some corrections by reference to 
later authorities, but is entertaining. 

Obiter Dicta, by Augustine Birrell, contains a very 
brief but able summary of Milton's career. 

The Spectator, 1711-1712, contains Joseph Addison's 
critical remarks on "Paradise Lost," extremely 
laudatory, but well worth reading. 

Johnson's Lives of the Poets. The life of Milton 
is unfair and prejudiced, but should be read after 
the student has learned the truth from other 
writers. 

Lowell. Review of Masson's Life of Milton. This 
essay on Milton should be read for its clear- 
sighted, fair-minded appreciation, and its exquisite 
summary of the poet's character. 

Macaulay's Essay on Milton is best read after 
making independent acquaintance with the views 
of others, but it has all the charm of Macaulay's 
style. Read also the "Conversation Between 
Cowley and Milton," in Macaulay's "Miscellaneous 
Writings and Speeches." 

Literary Landmarks of London. Laurence Hut- 
ton. 

Autobiography of Milton, by James Graham. Long- 
mans, Green & Co. A book made up by bringing 
together extracts from Milton's works. 

295 



[Appendix 



Encyclopedia Britannica contains a brief sum- 
mary by Masson of his life of Milton. 

Short Sketch of English Literature, Henry 
Morley, contains a most excellent view of Milton's 
life and career, taken up chronologically in scat- 
tered passages. 

History of English Literature, by Taine, in Vol- 
ume II., in a severely critical tone toward Milton 
and his works, gives a most unsympathetic view, 
but one not wholly unjustifiable. It is a good cor- 
rective of over-enthusiastic appreciation. 

Milton's Latin Poems have been translated into 
verse by Cowper, though the lines are often 
omitted from his works. 

It has not been thought necessary to cite here the 
well-known histories of England that give the events 
from 1608 to 1674. Green, Gardiner, Macaulay, 
Clarendon, Hallam, Guizot, Carlyle, all give vivid 
pictures of the Civil War and the Restoration. 

Sir Walter Scott's "Legend of Montrose" and 
"Woodstock" will transport the reader into the midst 
of the men and events of Milton's manhood. Pepys 
and Evelyn in their diaries give those minute events 
for which no history has space, and recreate the 
social life of the time. Murray's "Handbook of 
London" is invaluable for reference in regard 
to the London localities connected with Milton's 
life there. 



296 



INDEX 

"Ad Patrem," 88 
Aldersgate house, 128 
Alfred the Great, 133 
All-Hallows Church, 36, 40 
American affairs, 1620- 1624, 58 

colonies, 23 
amusements, 8 
Amnesty Act, 263 
"An Epitaph," poem, 204 
"Areopagitica," 94, 182 
"Arcades," 94, 97 
Armada, 41 

Army, New Model, 195 
Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 279 
Arthur, King; Milton's epic on, 126 
Artillery Walk house, 266 
Aubrey, quoted, 46 
"Avenge, O Lord," sonnet, 254 

Bacon, Francis, chancellor, 45 

condemned, 55 
banking, 23 
Barbican house, 186 
Baroni, Leonora, 118 
Bartholomew Close, 261 
Basing House sieges, 174, 187 
Beaufort, Lady Margaret, 64 
Birrell, Augustine, quoted, 252 
bishops sent to Tower, 144 
Blake, Admiral, 244, 245 
blindness, Milton's, 240, 245 
"Book of Sports," 177 
Boswell, James, quoted, 165 
Bread Street, 34 
Bread Street house, 37, 38 
Bristol taken, 166 

retaken, 187 
Browne, R. C, quoted, 129 
Browne, Sir Thomas, 157, 194 
297 



Index 



Buckingham, Duke of, 55 
Burke, Edmund, quoted, 270 
Butler's "Hudibras," 268 * 

Cambridge, town, 65 

university, 59, 60, 61, 66 

Milton's feeling toward, 72, 84 

course of study, 70 

life at, 67 
Carlyle, Thomas, quoted, 141, 160, 161, 222 
Catharine of Braganza, 269 
cause of the Civil War, 142 
Cavaliers, 1, 3, 6, 11 
Chalfont cottage, 273 
chaplains, 7 
Chappell, William, 71 
Charing Cross, 40, 225 

lodgings, 224 
Charles I, 122, 124, 131 

journey to Spain, 56 

visits Edinburgh, 140 

leaves London, 145 

surrenders, 185, 192 

given up to Parliament, 196, 198, 202 

under restraint, 204, 215, 216 

his trial, 220 

execution, 221 
Charles II proclaimed, 223 

after Worcester, 240 

enters London, 262 

marriage, 269 
Chaucer, 30, 35 
classical studies, Milton's, 90 
Christ College, 62, 63, 64, 68 

Church, 10, 12, 15 
Church desecration, 134, 136 
Church differences, 43 
Clarendon, quoted, 215, 251 
coaching, 64 
Colet, Dr., 47 
colonies, 23, 208 
"Comus," 94, 97, 102 
costume, 7, 68, 105, 152 
criminal law, 86 

Cromwell, Oliver, 26, 158-162, 181, 184, 195, 214, 
215, 216 

298 



Index 



Cromwell, Oliver (Continued). 

advice as to army, 151 

and Charles I, 202 

suppresses mutiny, 204 

in Ireland, 232 

at Dunbar, 238 

his government, 241 

and Vane, 247, 248 

dissolves Parliament, 248 

death, 257 

praised by Milton, 229 

sonnet to, 246 
Cromwell, Richard, 258 
Cowper, translates Milton, 89 
cups given Milton by Manso, 120 

daughters, Milton's, 265 

Davenant, Sir William, 263, 280 

Davis, Miss, courted by Milton, 184 

De Foe, Daniel, on London Plague, 78 

De Groot (Grotius), 109, no, 187 

De Quincey, quoted, 129 

Derby, Countess of, 94, 95, 100 

de Saumaise, 234 (see Salmasius) 

desecration of churches, 177 

Dickens, Charles, 145 

Diodati, Charles, 53, 73, 75, 120, 125, 126, 132 

John, 54, 124 
divorce, pamphlet on, 164, 172 
"Drogheda massacre," 232 
Du Bartas, 53 

"Dugald Dalgetty," 122, 143 
"Duke Humphrey's Walk," 49 
du Moulin, Peter, 242 
Dunbar battle, 237 
Dutch wars, 242, 244, 276, 277 

East India Company, 23 
Edgehill battle, 149, 161 
"Education," Milton on, 128 
"Eikon Basilike," 229, 231 
"Eikonoclastes," 231 
Eliot, John, 197 
Ellwood, Thomas, 272 
England under Elizabeth, 16, 25, 41, 42 
James I, 17, 18 



299 



Index 



England Under (Continued). 

Charles II, 269 

Cromwell, 241, 252, 256 
Epigram on portrait, Milton's, 189 
Episcopacy abolished, 195 
"Epitaphium Damonis," 125 
Essex, Earl of, 175, 180 
Evelyn s diary, 130, 132, 260 
eyesight, Milton's, 36, 234, 240 

Fairfax, Lord, 180, 184, 191, 212, 221 

Falkland, death, 170 

"Familiar Letters," Milton's, 281 

Howell's (see Howell's) 
fanatics, the, 250 
farming, 20, 21 
"Fatal Vespers," 57 
Fire of London, Great, 275 
Fisher, Bishop, 64 
fisheries, 23 
"Five Members," 144 
Florence, in 
France, 58, 107 
Francis, Sir Philip, 48 
Franklin, Benjamin, 262 
"French Marriage," 75 
friends of Milton, 254, 256 
funeral, sham, of Milton, 263 

Galileo, 112-114, 157, 218 
Gardiner, S. R., quoted, 272, 276 
Garnett, Richard, quoted, 39, 65, 90, 115, 119, 193, 201 
Gauden, Dr., 229, 231 
Gill, Dr., 47, 50, 132 
Geddes, Jenny, 101 
Geneva, Milton visits, 124 
Globe theatre, 177 
Gloucester, siege, 167, 168 
"Grand Remonstrance," 142 
Green, John Richard, quoted, 131, 191, 252 
Grotius, 109, no, 187 
Grub Street, 266 
Gunpowder Plot, 44 
Guy Fawkes, 44 
Hallam, Honry, quoted, 81 
Hampden, John, 26, 101, 140, 142, 158, 166 
Hampton Court conference. 27 
300 



Index 



Hartlib, Samuel, 128 

Haughton, Milton's grandmother, 32 

Herbert of Cherbury, Lord, 217 

Herrick, Robert, 218 

"History of Britain," Milton's, 281 

Hobbes, Thomas, 157 

Hobson, the carrier, 64, 65 

Holburn house, Milton's, 199, 264 

Holsten, Lucas, librarian, 118 

Holton village, 32 

holidays, 8 

Horton village, 87 

houses of the time, 39 

Howell's "Familiar Letters," 39, 104, 108, 132 

"Hudibras," Butler's, 268 

Hull, siege, 168, 173 

"II Penseroso," 92 

''Independents," 180, 184, 220, 241, 249 

inns, 106 

Irish rebellion, 142 

"Ironsides," 151, 179 

Italy, Milton in, ill, 112 

James I, 1^. 17, 26, 27, 43, 74 

Jansen portrait of Milton, 40, 41, 46 

Jeffrey, Sarah, Milton's mother, 34, 36 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, quoted, 52, 71, 72, 128, 129, 165 

Jonson, Ben, 49, 101 

Joyce, Cornet, 202 

"Junius," 48 

King, Edward, 91, 102 

"L'Allegro," 92 

Landor, Walter Savage, 112, 210 

land values, 19 

Laud, Archbishop, 85, 133, 134, 184 

Lawes, Henry, 96, 190, 194 

Leibnitz, 197 

Lely, Sir Peter, 147 

Ley, Lady Margaret, 178 

life under Stuarts, 209 

Lilly, Astrologer, 199 

Lilly's Grammar, 47 

Lincoln's Inn Fields, 199 

linguist, Milton as, 129 

301 



Index 



London threatened by royalists, 154 

in war time, 176 

streets, 38 

held by army, 203 

mobs, 133, 143, 144, 166 
. Milton's, 206 

Great Fire of, 275 

plague, 272, 273 
love, Milton on, 171 
Lowell, James Russell, 268, 282 
Lownes, Humphrey, 52 
"Lycidas," 91, 99 

Macaulay, quoted, 171, 178 

Macbeth, as subject for Milton, 133 

"Malignants," 2 

Manso, Giovanni, 119, 120, 187 

marriage-portion, Milton's, 198 

Marston Moor battle, 179 

Marini, poet, 120 

masques, 94, 96 

Masson, David, quoted. 67, 125, 186, 278, 279 

Mead, Lucia M., quoted, 39, 82, 199, 264 

metre, Milton on, 194 

mezzotint process, improved by Prince Rupert, 26S 

microscope, 59 

military art, 152 

militia, control of, 141, 145 
defends London, 154 

Milton, Anne (sister of John), 36 

Milton, Anne (daughter); born, 193 

Milton, Christopher, 36, 88, 99, 170 

Milton, Deborah; born, 240 

Milton, Henry, 31 

Milton, John, 

as reformer, 30; family, 31 ; birth, 37; youth, 40; 
at school, 47 ; household, boyhood, 52 ; at Cam- 
bridge, 67; "The Lady," 69; swordsman, 69: 
punished at Cambridge. 71 ; Latin poems, 73 ; 
literary work in college. 76, 80 ; early poems. 
89, 92 ; habits of work, 92 ; trip abroad, 99 ; re- 
called, 121; conduct abroad, 125; poetical proj- 
ects, 133 ; his part in the war, 137 ; habit of life. 
140; subscribes to war funds. 156: courtship, 162: 
deserted by wife, 164; view of love, 171 ; Mar> 
Powell, 171 ; receives Powell family, 193 ; before 
302 






Index 



Parliament, 181 ; poems published, 188; portraits, 
40, 41, 46, 189; defence of regicides, 223; as 
Secretary, 224, 227 ; his income, 228 ; at Whitehall 
palace, 224 ; Salmasius controversy, 235 ; under 
Commonwealth, 243, 252 ; friends, 254, 256 ; 
second marriage, 255; imprisoned, 263; home 
unhappy, 264; third marriage, 265; under Re- 
storation, 271; appearance, 278; religious cus- 
toms, 279; death, 282. 

Milton, John, Sr., 32, 34, 35, 36, 100, 170, 198. 

Milton, Mary; birth, 211 

Milton, Richard, 31 

Milton, Sarah (mother of John), death, 90 

Milton Street, 266 

Minshull, Elizabeth, third wife of Milton, 265 

mobs in London, 133, 143, 144, 166 

Monk, George, 258, 259, 276 

monopolies, 24, 55 

''Montrose, Legend of," 122, 143 

Montrose, Marquis of, 185, 190, 191, 236 

More, Alexander, 242 

Morley, Henry, quoted, 146; discovers Milton poem, 
206 
John, quoted, 211, 213, 247 

Moseley, Humphrey, publishers, 187 

Naples, 119 
Naseby battle, 184 
nicknames, party, 2, 143 
New Amsterdam, 59, 277 
Newbury, first battle, 169 

second battle, 180 
newspaper, first, 59 
newspaper strife, 226 
Newton, Sir Isaac, 156 

"Ode on Nativity," 80 
opening of war, 147, 148 
Ormonde, Duke of, 190, 223 

pamphlets on church government, 258 

by Milton, 38, 137, 146 
"Paradise Lost," 271, 274, 277, 279, 281 
"Paradise Regained," 274, 280 
Paris, 107, 109 
Parliament men, 26 

dissolved, 56 

303 



Index 



Parliament (Continued). 

Short, 130 

Long, 131 

alliance with Scots, 173 

Rump, 248, 259 
Pattison, Mark, quoted, 229, 264 
Paul's Cross, 48 
pendulum in clocks, 218 
Penn, Admiral, 245 
Pepys, Samuel, diary, 48, 260, 272 
persecution, 86 
Petty France house, 254 
Philliphaugh battle, 191 
Phillips boys, 127 
Phillips, Wendell, quoted, 246 
Pilgrims and Puritans, 54 
piracy, 19 

plague, 76, 77, 100, 272, 27s 
portrait-painting, 147 

portraits of Milton, 69, 282, 40, 41, 46, 189 
Powell, Mary, 162, 164, 185, 240 
Powells (family), 192, 193 
Powell, Richard, 198 
Powick Bridge skirmish, 149 
Preston battle, 214 
"Pryde's Purge," 216 
pslams, versions of, 51, 210 
"Punch" office, site, 132 
Puritanism, 5, 12, 13 
Puritans, 1, 3, 4, 12, 28 
Pym, John, 26, 134 

Queen, Charles I's, sells jewels, 148 
Queen, Charles IPs, 269 

Raleigh's expedition, 45 

Reading, captures of, 170 

"Reason of Church Government," 146 

regicides defended by Milton, 223 

regicides, fate of, 262 

"Religio Medici," Browne's, 194 

religious speculations, 195 

Restoration, 258 

rhyme on surrender of King, 196 

Richelieu, death, 158 

roads, 65, 106 

Rogers' "Italy," quoted, 113 

304 






Index 



Roman Catholicism, 28 

Rome, Milton in, 117, 118, 123 

"Roundheads," 1, 143 

"Royal Defence for Charles I," 235 

royalist campaign, 1643-4, 167 

Royal Society founded, 267 

royal standard recaptured, 150 

Rump Parliament, 248, 259 

Rupert, Prince, 149, 155, 166, 170, 179, 244, 248, 267, 

268, 276 
rents, 19 

Salmasius, 234, 243, 250 

"Samson Agonistes," 281 

school, Milton at, 47 

school, Milton keeps, 128 

Scotch surrender of King, 196 

Scotch war, 122 

Scriveners' Company, 3s, 34 

secession of fleet, 220 

Selden, John, 230, 250, 251 

"Self-denying Ordinance," 184 

Shakespeare, references to, 30, 32, 35, 49, 58, 95, 112, 

213, 232, 263 
Sidney, Algernon, 220 
Sidney, Sir Philip, 25 
sign of Milton's shop, 37 
Skippon, General, 184, 221 
slave-trade, 23 
"Smectymnuus," 139, 146 
Social conditions, 21, 22 

sonnets, Milton's, 155, 178, 193, 213, 245, 254, 255 
"Sovereign of the Seas," vessel, 101, 102 
"Spanish Marriage," 29, 56, 57 
Spenser, Edmund, 53, 94 
"Standard in Cheap," the, 39 
Standish, Miles, 25 
Stanton St. John, 32 
St. Bride house, 127 
St. Paul's Cathedral. 48, 49, 276 
St. Paul's School, 46, 47, 50 
Strafford, Earl of, 131, 134, 136 
Strange, Lord, 95 
streets, London, 38 
Sunday observance, 177 
supersitions, 208 

3°5 



Index 

"Table Talk," Selden's, 250 
tactics, 153 

Taine, on social state, 208 
tapestry, 22 
Tasman, 158 
Tasso, 120 

Taylor, Jeremy, 158, 280 
taxation, 24, 29, 212 
theatres closed, 147 
theatricals, Milton on, 83 
third of September, 238 
Thirtv Years' War, 45 
Tovey, Nathaniel, 72 
trade conditions, 207 
Trade guilds, 33 
traveling, 100, 103, 106, 107 
Treaty of Berwick, 122 
Tromp, Admiral, 243, 251 
Tusser, Thomas, 21 

Universities, 63 

Van Dyck, 147 

Vane, Sir Henry, 26, 173, 221, 243, 246, 270 

Vaughan, C. E., quoted, 183 

Venables, Admiral, 245 

Venice, 123 

Virginia Company, 23 

"Vulgar errors," Browne, 194 

Wages, 19 

Walton's "Compleat Angler," 250 

War-funds, 148 

Warton, 72 

Wentworth, Thomas (see Strafford) 

Westminster Assembly, 195 

Wexford Massacre, 232 

"When City Expected Assault," sonnet, 155 

Williams, Roger, 246 

Winceby fight, 173 

Woodcock, Catherine, 255 

wool-growing, 20 

Worcester battle, 239 

Wotton, Sir Henry, 102, 123 

Wren, Sir Christopher, 276 

Young, Thomas, 46 



306 



'Of Practical Value." 

— Hartford Courant. 



The Citizen 



A STUDY OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 
AND THE GOVERNMENT 

By Nathaniel Southgate Shaler 

Professor of Geology in Harvard University 
and Dean of the Lawrence Scientific School 



"Profit and pleasure are written on 
every page." — Public Opinion. 

"A book which will be widely read 
and discussed." — Boston Herald. 

"Practical and stimulating. Inter- 
esting and inspiring. ' ' — Springfield 
Republican. 

"There could be nothing bettor for 
intelligent young men than to read 
Professor Shaler's book." — Hartford 
Timet. 

"Sound advice crystallized to serve 
as a guide to rising generations of 
voters and to citizens." — Indianapolis 
Sentinel. 

J2mo, Cloth, $1,4.0 net. Postage, 10 cts. 



A. S. BARNES & CO. 



THE FINAL RESULTS OF THE BEST MODERN 
SCHOLARSHIP PRESENTED IN BRIEF AND 
INTERESTING FORM." 



Napoleon 

A Short Biography 

By R. M. Johnston 

Used at Yale Unfbersity, the University of California, 
and elsewhere 



Professor Edward G. Bourne, of Yale 
University, says : "Mr. Johnston's Napo- 
leon fills an unoccupied place in the 
literature on Napoleon accessible to the 
English reader, and supplies a distinct 
need." 

" Should be in the hands of teachers as 
a first-rate text-book and of students as 
a model of composition." 

— c Boston Transcript, 

"Admirable. A clear and comprehen- 
sive review of Napoleon's career, of his 
military achievements, and of his work 
as a legislator." 

— London Spectator, 



l2mo, cloth, *k>ith frontispiece and maps 
$1,00 net. Postage 10 cents, 

A. S. BARNES C& CO. 



We FIRST EXPLORER °f THE SOUTH 

Narratives of the Career 
of Hernando De Soto 

In the Conquest of Florida (1539-1542) 

as told by a Gentleman of Elvas, by 

Luys Hernandez De Biedma and 

by Rodrigo Ranjel 

Edited, with an Introduction by 

EDWARD GAYLORD BOURNE, 

Professor of History in Yale University 



This is the first time that the wonderful story of 
De Soto's career and the first exploration of the 
South has been presented in full from the original 
narratives. In addition to the classic histories of 
the Gentleman of Elvas and De Biedma, which 
have not been accessible to general readers in 
separate form, this volume contains the indispensable 
narrative of Ranjel, De Soto's secretary, which is 
now translated for the first time for this volume by 
Professor Bourne. It is a contemporary day by day 
record of singular importance, The appearance 
of the complete original De Soto narratives under 
Professor Bourne's critical and complete editorship 
brings within reach some of the most important 
sources of American history and provides a volume 
of extraordinary general interest. 

2 'vols. Small l2mo, cloth, Illus. $2,00 net 



A. S. BARNES <& CO. 



"FRIEND, PHILOSOPHER & GUIDE' 

Home 
Thoughts 

FIRST AND SECOND SERIE 

By "C" 

(MRS. JAMES FARLEY COX) 

"A book which every mother, wife 
and daughter in the land should read." 

The Lamp. 

"No wiser book, nor one more 
sorely ne xied, has appeared in a long 

time." Hamilton W. Mabie. 

"No greater tribute can be paid to 
a book than to say that one is better 
for reading it. By every test 'Home 
Thoughts' deserves this tribute." 

N. T. Evg. Sun. ' 

"Should find a place among the 
presents of all brides of our genera- 
tion. " New York Mail. 



2 volumes, l2mo. Cloth , gilt top. Each $1.20 net. 
The Set in Box, Cloth, $2.40 net. Half Calf, $6.00 net 

A. S. BARNES & CO. 



AUG 23 1905 



















































s 





























" '"" ;.•< - 









